I vxx 


PROCEEDINGS 


AT 


PLYMOUTH,  DECEMBER  21, 1895 


ON  THE 


. 


275th  ANNIVERSARY 


OF  THE 


LANDING  OF  THE  PILGRIMS 


PLYMOUTH: 

Avery  & Doten,  Printers. 
1896. 


library 

u,TOl$ 


THE 


PROCEEDINGS 

AT  THE 

CELEBRATION 

BY  THE 

PILGRIM  SOCIETY, 


Plymouth,  December  21,  1895", 

OF  THE 

275th  ANNIVERSARY 

OF  THE 

LANDING  OF  THE  PILGRIMS. 


PLYMOUTH: 

Avery  & Doten,  Printers. 
1896. 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/proceedingsatcel00pilg_0 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  PILGRIM  SOCIETY. 


President. 

Arthur  Lord,  Plymouth. 


Vice  Presidents. 

William  M.  Evarts,  New  York ; William  G.  Russell,  Boston ; 
Wm.  W.  Crapo,  New  Bedford;  Justin  Winsor,  Cambridge. 


Secretary. 

William  S.  Danforth,  Plymouth. 
Treasurer. 

Charles  B.  Stoddard,  Plymouth. 
Trustees. 


Charles  G.  Davis,  Samuel  H.  Doten,  Charles  C.  Doten,  Ben- 
jamin M.  Watson,  Alpheus  K.  Harmon,  James  B.  Brewster, 
William  ri . Davis,  William  P.  Stoddard,  Daniel  E.  Damon, 
Edgar  D.  Hill,  William  Hedge,  Thomas  B.  Drew,  James  D. 
Thurber,  Edward  E.  Hobart,  William  S.  Morrissey,  Charles  S. 
Davis,  Plymouth  ; George  P.  Hayward,  Boston  ; Winslow  Warren, 
Dedham;  George  A.  Tewksbury,  Concord;  Arthur  Lincoln,  John 
D.  Long,  Alfred  S.  Hersey,  Hingham  ; William  Savery,  Carver ; 
Benjamin  W.  Harris,  East  Bridgewater ; George  Sampson,  Bos- 
ton ; Hosea  Kingman,  Bridgewater ; Roland  Mather,  Hartford  ; 
Stephen  Salisbury,  Worcester;  William  A.  Thomas,  Horation 
Adams,  Kingston  ; Joseph  E.  Beals,.  Middleboro. 


COMMITTEES  OF  THE  CELEBRATION. 


* 


Committee  of  Arrangements. 
Arthur  Lord,  William  T.  Davis, 

James  D.  Thurber,  William  S.  Danforth, 

Charles  C.  Doten,  Charles  B.  Stoddard, 

Gideon  F.  Holmes. 


Reception  Committee. 


James  B.  Brewster, 
William  H.  Drew, 
Edward  B.  Hayden, 
Charles  S.  Davis, 

John  J.  Russell, 
Horatio  Adams, 

Daniel  E.  Damon, 
'Thomas  D.  Shumway, 


Edward  B.  Atwood, 
Horace  P.  Bailey, 
Jason  W.  Mixter, 
Nathaniel  Morton, 
Frederick  L.  Churchill, 
Joseph  E.  Beals, 
William  S.  Morissey, 
Alonzo  Warren. 


Chief  Marshal. 
William  P.  Stoddard. 


Winslow  B.  Standish, 

Charles  E.  Bradford, 
Herbert  C.  Howland, 
James  Mullins, 
Thomas  Jackson, 
Warren  N.  Pierce, 
Isaac  M.  Jackson, 
Myles  Standish, 


Aids. 

William  Hedge. 

Marshals. 

Isaac  S.  Brewstef, 
Thomas  Alden,  Jr., 
John  W.  Churchill, 
John  T.  Stoddard, 
Charles  E.  Barnes, 
Edward  E.  Hobart, 
Henry  H.  Fowler. 


5 


Committee  on  the  Ball. 


Edgar  D.  Hill, 
James  Spooner, 
Alfred  S.  Burbank 
A.  E.  Lewis, 


Charles  A.  Strong, 
Henry  J.  W.  Drew 
W.  C.  Butler, 

E.  A.  Dunton, 


EXERCISES  IN  THE  ARMORY. 


Overture. 

By  the  Plymouth  Band. 

Anthem. 

By  the  Plymouth  Musical  Club. 

Prayer. 

By  the  Rev.  Charles  P.  Lombard,  Pastor  of  the  First  Church. 

Ode. 

“ Sons  of  Renowned  Sires,”  written  by  John  Davis,  for  the 
celebration  in  1792.  Sung  by  the  Plymouth  Musical  Club. 


6 


POEM, 

By  Richard  Henry  Stoddard. 

AT  PLYMOUTH. 

The  Muse  whose  task  it  is  to  pen 

In  her  great  Book  the  deeds  of  men, 
Pens  only  what  she  sees, 

Nor  scans  too  closely  these. 

For,  whether  good  or  bad  to  her, 

Time  is  their  sole  interpreter, 

And  slow  the  hands  thnt  trace 
The  verdicts  of  the  Race ! 

When  he,  the  adventurous  Genoese, 

Put  boldly  forth  on  chartless  seas, 

He  sought  the  shortest  way 
To  India  and  Cathay. 

Day  after  day  the  waves  went  by ; 

Suns  rose  and  set ; stars  shone  on  high 
’Till  what  seemed  land-winds  fanned 
His  sails,  but  from  what  land 

He  knew  not ; for  a Hand  unknown 

Had  steered  more  wisely  than  his  own. 
And  when  his  sails  were  furled 
’Twas  in  a new-found  World  ! 

The  Muse  of  History,  when  she  penned 

This  deed  of  his,  saw  not  the  end, 

Or,  roused  with  noble  rage, 

She  would  have  torn  the  page  ; 


RICHARD  HENRY  STODDARD. 


LIBRARY 

(H  THE 

UNIVEPSlly  of  ILLINOIS 


7 


■So  many  followed  on  his  track, 

And  fetched  the  spoil  of  empires  back ; 
Plundered  their  temples, — graves, 

And  made  their  peoples  slaves. 

Not  to  discover  what  might  be 
Beyond  the  waste  of  western  Sea, 

(No  wish  the  wealth  to  find 
Of  Ormuz  and  of  Ind,) 

But  lesser  things,  the  common  things 
Which  anger  priests,  and  baffle  kings, 

Who,  arrogant,  try  to  bind 
The  forces  of  mankind  ; 

These,  and  no  more — what  could  be  less? 
Directed  the  stern  Righteousness 
That  sought  a shelter  here, 

And  makes  its  memory  dear! 

Above  all  other  lands  on  earth. 

They  loved  the  Land  that  gave  them  birth ; 
Its  se^-girt  coasts,  its  downs, 

Its  hamlets  and  its  towns ; 

The  green  fields  where  their  children  played ; 
The  churchyards  where  their  sires  were  laid ! 
God’s  Acres,  sown,  indeed, 

With  more  than  royal  seed! 

They  loved  their  England,  what  was  best 
In  her  they  loved,  but  not  the  rest ; 


8 


Her  State  that  made  her  great,. 

But  not  her  Church  in  State ! 

For  this  she  hated  them  ; for  she 
Defender  of  the  Faith  would  be, 

If  not  with  faggot-fires 
Such  as  consumed  their  sires, 

With  heavy  penalties  and  fines, 

With  scurrile  jests  and  ribald  lines, 

And  all  the  loud,  coarse  lies 
In  town  and  country  cries ! 

What  did  they  want,  whom  high  and  low 
Despised  and  persecuted  so? 

Little,  when  understood. — 

They  wanted  to  be  good ; 

To  worship  God  in  their  own  way  ; 

To  read  their  Bibles,  and  to  pray 
And  save  their  souls ! Poor  men — 

But  poorer  England  then  ! 

Little  for  little  things  like  these 
The  Muse  of  History  cares ; she  sees 
And  pens  more  splendid  things  : 

The  courts  and  camps  of  kings ; 

Great  hosts  of  men  on  battle  fields ; 

The  crash  of  spears  on  brazen  shields 
Sacked  cities,  wrapt  in  flame, 

And  deeds  without  a name ! 


9 


Not  war,  but  peace  our  fathers  sought ; 

For  peace  and  not  for  war  they  fought — 

The  weak  against  the  strong ; 

Such  battles  must  be  long ! 

Nought  save  themselves  their  vessel  bore- 
To  this  inhospitable  shore. 

And  they  were  less  than  nought 
Incurious  History  thought. 

She  erred.  For  in  their  train,  unseen, 

There  was  a shape  of  dauntless  mien — 

The  Manhood  potent  then 
In  those  determined  men  ! 

The  might  of  English  hearts  and  hands,. 

To  fell  old  forests,  till  new  lands ; 

Prepared  alike  to  pray, 

And,  when  need  was,  to  slay ! 

They  did  the  work  they  had  to  do ; 

They  builded  better  than  they  knew  : 

So  must  the  few  whom  Fate 
Selects  to  found  a State ! 

They  founded  theirs  with  psalms  and  prayers  ; 
What  sounder  State  could  be  than  theirs — 

The  first  since  time  began 
Of  faith  in  God  and  Man  ! 

Ode. 

“The  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,”  written  by  Mrs.  Felicia' 
Hemans,  sung  by  Myron  W.  Whitney. 


10 


ORATION, 

By  Hon.  George  F.  Hoar. 

Surely  that  people  is  happy  to  whom  the  noblest  story  in 
history  has  come  down  through  father  and  mother  by  the  un- 
broken tradition  of  their  own  firesides.  If  there  be  one  thing 
more  than  another  for  which  we  have  to  thank  God  on  this 
anniversary,  it  is  that  the  tale  we  have  to  tell  is  a familiar 
household  story.  The  thoughts  which  are  appropriate  to  the 
day  are  commonplaces.  Every  generation  since  the  Pilgrim 
landed  here  has  held  his  memory  dear.  The  light  of  later 
days,  that  has  dispelled  the  intellectual  darkness  of  his  time, 
gives  new  lustre  and  added  nobility  to  his  simple  and  rever- 
end figure. 

So  far  as  honor  can  be  paid  by  the  utterance  of  the  lips, 
or  by  the  tender  affection  of  the  heart,  his  descendants  have 
never  failed  in  what  is  due  to  the  Pilgrim.  The  faults  of 
other  founders  of  States  have  not  been  forgotten.  They  have 
been  kept  alive  in  human  memory,  not  only  by  the  jealous 
criticism  of  men  of  other  blood,  but  by  the  severe  judgment 
of  history.  The  founder  of  Rome,  the  Norman  Conqueror  of 
England,  the  Spaniard  in  the  South,  the  Cavalier  of  James- 
town, the  settler  of  the  far  West  — even  the  Puritan  of  Mass- 
achusetts — is  known  in  history  quite  as  much  by  his  faults, 
or  by  his  crimes,  as  by  his  virtues.  Puritan  and  Cavalier, 
Royalist  and  Roundhead  may  be  terms  of  honor  or  terms  of 
reproach.  But  the  word  Pilgrim  is  everywhere  a word  of 
tenderest  association.  There  is  no  blot  on  the  memory  of  the 
Pilgrim  of  Plymouth.  No  word  of  reproach  is  uttered  when 
lie  is  mentioned.  The  fame  of  the  passenger  of  the  May- 


11 


flower  is  as  pure  and  fragrant  as  its  little  namesake,  sweetest 
of  the  flowers  of  spring.  He  is  the  stateliest  figure  in  all 
history.  He  passes  before  us  like  some  holy  shade  seen  in 
the  Paradiso  in  the  vision  of  Dante. 

Certainly  you  have  not  failed  in  due  honor  to  the  Pilgrim’s 
memory.  You  have  given  him,  in  every  generation,  of  your 
best.  No  incense,  no  pageant,  no  annual  procession,  no  statue 
— though  Phidias  were  the  sculptor  — no  temple  — though  the 
dome  were  rounded  by  the  hand  of  Angelo  — can  equal  as  a 
votive  offering  the  imperishable  oration  of  Webster.  It  is  the 
one  best  offering  which  could  be  laid  on  the  Pilgrim’s  shrine. 
That  majestic  eloquence,  if  not  equaled,  has  been  worthily  fol- 
lowed by  the  consummate  grace  of  Everett,  the  more  than 
oriental  imagination  of  Choate,  the  stately  dignity  of  Winthrop. 
Here,  too,  has  stood  Sumner  — Sumner  of  the  white  soul  — 
to  lay  his  wreath  on  the  Pilgrims’  altar  in  right  of  a martyr 
spirit,  lofty  and  undaunted  as  their  own.  You  may  well  be- 
lieve that  if  a competition  with  these  masters  were  expected 
today,  I might  — as  might  any  living  man  — shrink  from  the 
comparison.  But  it  is  not  from  human,  it  is  not  from  living 
lips  that  you  are  expecting  the  lesson  of  this  occasion.  You 
are  here  to  listen  to  the  voices  of  the  dead  ; to  meditate  anew 
the  eternal  truths  on  which  your  fathers  founded  the  State. 
This  imperial  people,  if  it  is  to  bear  rule  over  a continent, 
must  listen  to  the  voice  of  which  David  spake  with  dying  lips  : — 
“The  Rock  spake  to  me.” 

You  are  here  to  hearken  to  the  voice  of  the  Rock. 

The  most  precious  earthly  reward  of  a well-spent  life  is  the 
gratitude  and  love  of  children.  Surely  the  Pilgrim  has  had 
that.  But  he  looked  to  no  earthly  reward,  however  precious. 


12 


“They  knew  they  were  Pilgrims,  and  looked  not  much  on 
those  things,  but  lifted  up  their  eyes  to  Heaven,  their  dearest 
country,  and  so  quieted  their  spirits.” 

How  few  of  them  there  were.  Eighteen  men  came  ashore  on 
the  21st  of  December.  But  forty-one  names  are  signed  to  the 
compact.  Of  these  not  more  than  twenty  survived  the  first  winter. 
Surely  the  parable  of  the  mustard  seed,  than  which,  as  Edward 
Everett  said,  “the  burning  pen  of  inspiration,  ranging  Heaven 
and  Earth  for  a similitude,  can  find  nothing  more  appropriate  or 
expressive  to  which  to  liken  the  Kingdom  of  God,”  is  repeated 
again.  “ Whereunto  shall  we  liken  it,  or  with  what  comparison 
shall  we  compare  it?” 

“It  is  like  a grain  of  mustard  seed,  which,  when  it  is  sown 
in  the  earth,  is  less  than  all  the  seeds  that  be  in  the  earth. 

“But  when  it  is  sown  it  groweth  up,  and  becometh  greater 
than  all  herbs,  and  shooteth  out  great  branches ; so  that  the 
fowls  of  the  air  may  lodge  under  the  shadow  of  it.” 

Though  the  heavens  be  rolled  up  as  a scroll,  this  story  is 
worthy  to  be  written  upon  the  scroll.  Though  the  elements 
shall  melt  with  fervent  heat,  this  pure  and  holy  flame  shall 
shine  brightly  over  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth.  It 
is  no  story  of  what  other  countries  have  deemed  great.  There 
is  no  royal  escutcheon,  no  noble  coat  armor,  no  knightly  shield. 
But  they  bore  the  whole  armor  of  God,  their  loins  girt  about 
with  truth,  having  the  breastplate  of  righteousness  ; their  feet 
shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace ; taking  the 
shield  of  faith,  and  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of 
the  spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God. 

Let  no  man  fancy  that  because  they  were  few  in  number, 
these  men  were  insignificant.  You  know  the  history  of  heroism 
better  than  that.  It  is  Leonidas  with  his  three  hundred,  and 


13 


not  Xerxes  with  his  ships  by  thousands,  and  men  in  nations, 
that  has  given  the  inspiration  to  mankind  for  two  thousand 
years.  There  fell  of  the  English  side,  at  Agincourt,  but  twenty- 
nine  persons  — 

Edward,  the  duke  of  York,  the  earl  of  Suffolk, 

Sir  Richard  Ketley,  Davy  Gam,  esquire; 

None  else  of  name;  and  of  all  other  men, 

But  five  and  twenty. 

But  somehow  Davy  Gam,  esquire,  has  hovered  over  the 
English  lines  on  a hundred  fields  of  victory,  from  Cressy  to 
Quebec,  from  Quebec  to  Waterloo.  “Cest  ton  jours  le  meme 
chose,”  said  Napoleon  when  he  yielded  himself  prisoner. 
That  spirit  came  ashore  at  Plymouth.  It  crossed  the  ocean 
to  abide.  It  takes  no  account  of  numbers  and  needs  no  num- 
bers for  its  victories. 

O God,  Thy  arm  was  here, 

And  not  to  us,  bnt  to  Thy  arm  alone, 

Ascribe  we  all.  Take  it,  God, 

For  it  is  only  Thine. 

Miles  Standish,  whom  an  accomplished  descendant  well  calls 
the  Greatheart  of  the  Pilgrims,  with  his  little  army  of  four- 
teen men,  inspired  with  this  spirit,  was  a power  mightier  than 
all  the  hosts  of  Xerxes.  They  fought  for  a stake  more  pre- 
cious than  that  of  Marathon  or  Waterloo,  as  Christian  freedom 
is  of  higher  value  than  Grecian  civilization,  or  than  the  em- 
pire of  Europe.  The  court  was  of  a dignity  that  no  Areopagus 
could  equal.  The  little  Senate  consisted  of  but  nine  men. 
But  it  was  making  laws  under  the  first  written  Republican 
-constitution,  which  held  in  itself  the  fate  of  all  others. 

I wish  to  speak  of  the  men  who  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock 
on  the  day  whose  anniversary  we  celebrate ; — of  what  they 


14 


were,  what  they  brought  witli  them,  of  the  republic  they  found- 
ed, what  they  left  to  their  posterity  that  now  remains,  and 
what  is  hereafter  to  abide.  Other  contributions,  whether  for 
good  or  evil,  to  that  composite  life  and  character  which  we 
call  America,  will  not  lack  due  consideration  elsewhere.  Some 
of  them  were  made  in  the  very  beginning,  at  Jamestown,  at 
Salem,  at  New  York,  at  Baltimore,  under  the  spreading  elm 
at  Philadelphia.  Others  are  of  later  time.  Some  of  them 
have  come  in  our  own  time,  from  Ireland,  from  England,  from 
Germany,  from  Canada,  and  from  that  Northern  hive  whose 
swarm  first  brought  the  honey  of  freedom  to  the  island  of 
our  ancestors.  They  have  not  lacked,  and  will  never  lack, 
due  honor.  But  it  is  to  this  one  alone  that  this  day  belongs. 
The  topic  may  perhaps  seem  narrow  and  local.  It  may  be 
said  of  the  Pilgrim  quality  what  your  admirable  chronicler, 
Mr.  Russell,  says  of  the  Mayflower:  “A  pleasing  fiction  ob- 
tains with  some  good  people  hereabouts,  viz.,  That  this  little 
flower  is  peculiar  to  this  section  of  the  country.”  But  to 
me,  looking  forward  as  best  I can  into  the  future  and  see- 
ing how  they  have  already  leavened  this  nation  of  ours,  the 
subject  seems  sometimes  as  large  and  broad  as  if  I were  to 
undertake  to  speak  of  the  consequences  of  the  creation  of 
Adam  and  Eve. 

The  commonwealths  which  were  united  in  1692  and  became 
the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  are  still  blended  in  the 
popular  conception.  Their  founders  are  supposed  to  have 
the  same  general  characteristics,  and  are  known  to  the  rest 
of  the  world  by  the  common  title  of  New  England  Puritans. 
I suppose  this  belief  prevails  even  in  New  England,  except  as 
to  a small  circle  of  scholars  and  the  descendants  of  the  Pil- 
grims who  still  dwell  in  the  Old  Colony,  and  who  have  studied 


15 


personally  the  history  of  their  ancestors.  Many  of  our  histor- 
ians have  treated  the  two  with  little  distinction,  except  that 
the  suffering  of  the  Pilgrim,  the  dangerous  and  romantic  voy- 
age of  the  Mayflower,  the  story  of  the  landing  in  December 
and  the  hardship  of  the  first  winter  have  made,  of  course,  a series 
of  pictures  of  their  own.  Even  Mr.  Webster,  after  narrating  as 
could  have  been  done  by  no  other  chronicler  who  ever  lived, 
these  picturesque  incidents,  proceeds  in  his  oration  of  1820  ta 
discuss  the  principles  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the  Puritan 
State,  and  which  were,  in  the  main,  common  to  both  commim- 
ties. 

Yet  the  dwellers  of  Plymouth  know  well  the  difference  between 
the  Pilgrim  that  landed  here  and  the  Puritan  that  settled  in 
Salem  and  Boston.  The  difference  was  as  great  as  woyld  have 
been  if  the  members  of  the  established  church  had  been  driven 
into  exile,  and  one  colony  founded  by  Jeremy  Taylor  or  George 
Herbert,  and  one  founded  by  Bancroft  or  Laud.  If  the  anti- 
slavery men  of  our  later  day  had  shaken  the  dust  off  their  feet 
against  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  and  gone  to  some  unoc- 
cupied island  in  some  remote  and  barbarous  archipelago,  the 
difference  would  scarcely  have  been  greater  between  a colony 
founded  by  Waldo  Emerson  or  Samuel  May,  and  one  founded  by 
Garrison  or  Parker  Pillsbury  or  Stephen  Foster,  than  that  be- 
tween the  men  of  Plymouth  and  the  men  of  Salem.  Both  were 
Englishmen.  Both  were,  as  they  understood  it,  Calvinists.  Both 
desired  freedom.  They  had  the  tie  of  a common  feeling,  of  a 
common  persecution,  of  a common  faith,  and  of  a common  hope. 
I wish  I could  add,  descendant  as  I am  of  the  Massachusetts 
Puritans  in  every  line  of  descent  that  I can  trace  since  the  time 
when  the  name  was  first  heard,  the  tie  of  a common  and  equal 
charity. 


16 


The  compact  on  board  the  Mayflower  was  the  beginning  of  a 
’State.  Another  State  was  begun  at  Salem  by  the  company  who 
‘Came  over  with  Endicott.  There  were  marked  resemblances  in 
the  quality  of  these  two  communities,  as  would  be  expected  from 
the  similarity  of  their  origin.  There  were  likewise  marked  differ- 
ences, as  would  be  expected  from  the  individual  character  of  the 
men  who  most  largely  influenced  them.  There  were  doubtless 
men  in  the  Puritan  state  penetrated  by  the  Pilgrim’s  spirit.  John 
Winthrop  himself,  the  foremost  single  figure  in  the  Massachusetts 
•colony,  would  have  been  in  all  respects  a loving  companion  to 
Bradford,  and  a loving  disciple  to  Robinson.  But  it  must,  I 
think,  be  admitted  that  while  Bradford  was  an  example  and 
representative  of  the  prevalent  spirit  of  Plymouth  — a spirit  that 
finds  its  expression  in  the  teaching  of  Robinson  — Winthrop  was 
a restraint  and  a repression  of  the  intolerance  of  the  Massachu- 
setts colony. 

Nathaniel  Ward,  of  Ipswich,  author  of  the  Body  of  Liberties, 
which,  though  it  was  never  printed  till  within  the  memory  of 
some  of  us,  served,  practically,  as  Constitution  and  Bill  of  Rights 
to  Massachusetts  until  1684,  if  not  until  1780,  says  in  the  Simple 
Cobbler  of  Agawam:  “It  is  said  men  ought  to  have  liberty  of 
conscience,  and  that  it  is  persecution  to  debar  them  from  it.  I 
can  rather  stand  amazed  than  reply  to  this.  It  is  an  astonishment 
to  think  that  the  brains  of  men  should  be  parboiled  in  such  im- 
pious ignorance.  No  practical  sin  is  so  sinful  as  some  error  of 
judgment ; no  man  so  accursed  with  indelible  infamy  and  dedo- 
lent  impenitency  as  authors  of  heresies.” 

Now  compare  this  with  the  farewell  counsel  of  John  Robinson, 
reported  by  Winslow : “ We  are,  ere  long,  to  part  asunder,  and 
the  Lord  knoweth  whether  ever  he  should  live  to  see  our  face 
again.  But  whether  the  Lord  had  appointed  it  or  not,  he  charged 


17 


us  before  God  and  His  blessed  angels,  to  follow  him  no  further 
than  he  followed  Christ ; and  if  God  should  reveal  anything  to  us 
by  any  other  instrument  of  His,  to  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  we 
were  to  receive  any  truth  by  his  ministry  ; for  he  was  very  confi- 
dent the  Lord  had  more  truth  and  light  yet  to  break  forth  out  of 
His  Holy  Word.” 

This  is  the  Pilgrim’s  declaration  and,  if  we  do  not  read  the 
world’s  history  amiss,  the  world’s  declaration  of  religious  inde- 
pendence. Let  it  stand  forever  by  the  side  of  the  immortal 
opening  sentences  of  the  Declaration  at  Philadelphia  . They  are 
twin  stars,  ever  shining  in  the  great  constellation  of  the  Northern 
sky,  pointing  to  that  eternal  Polar  star  of  truth  which  hath  no 
fellow  in  the  firmament. 

There  were  beautiful  and  pure  souls  in  the  Puritan  State, 
for  whose  translation  into  the  blessed  society  of  the  immor- 
tals there  seemed  nothing  of  a gross  mortality  to  be  pruned 
away.  Winthrop  is  still  our  foremost  example  of  a Christian 
ruler,  till  the  coming  of  Washington.  The  second  John  Win- 
throp was  a worthy  son  of  such  a father.  The  claim  of  his 
accomplished  descendant  that  no  purer  or  nobler  or  lovelier 
character  can  be  found  in  the  history  of  Connecticut,  whether 
among  Governors  or  among  governed,  than  that  of  the  younger 
Winthrop,  may  safely  be  enlarged  to  include  any  State  that  ever 
existed.  The  Winthrops  were  Christian  gentlemen,  fit  for  the 
championship  of  Bradford  and  Brewster,  and  there  can  be  no 
higher  praise.  There  were,  as  you  know,  evil  men  in  the 
company  of  Pilgrims.  But  still,  the  character  of  the  Pilgrim 
finds  its  perfect  portraiture  in  Bradford’s  exquisite  phrase  — 
“God’s  free  people;”  while  the  word  Puritan  calls  up  to  the 
imagination  a sterner,  harsher,  earthlier  image.  Blackstone 
said,  “I  came  from  England  to  escape  the  Lord  Bishops; 

2 


18 


and  I cannot  join  with  you  because  I would  not  be  under 
the  Lord  Brethren.”  The  Puritan  brought  with  him  to  Salem 
much  of  the  spirit  which  had  driven  him  from  England.  His 
experience  had  been  an  experience  of  persecutions.  What 
Milton  calls  the  “fury  of  the  Bishops”  was  still  raging.  Se- 
verity applied  to  men  of  English  blood  begets  severity  and 
defiance. 

“What  wonder  if  in  noble  heat, 

Those  men  thine  arms  withstood, 

Retaught  the  lessons  thou  hadst  taught, 

And  in  thy  spirit  with  thee  fought, 

Who  were  of  English  blood.” 

There  was  a yearning  for  Christian  unity  both  by  Puritan  and 
Pilgrim.  The  leaders  of  both  Colonies  were  English  gentlemen. 
They  were  attached  by  many  tender  ties  to  the  Church  of 
England.  The  farewell  letter  to  the  Massachusetts  Company, 
which  Mr.  Winthrop  thinks  was  written  by  his  ancestor,  is  a 
cry  of  the  heart.  The  love  for  that  dear  Mother,  the  Church 
of  England,  “from  whence  we  rise,  ever  acknowledging  that 
such  hope  and  part  as  we  have  obtained  in  the  common  salva- 
tion, we  have  received  in  her  bosom  and  sucked  it  from  her 
breasts,”  was  stirring  in  the  bosom  of  John  Robinson  also. 
Doubtless  if  the  persecution  had  ceased,  the  division  would 
have  ceased.  Edward  Winslow  says,  “The  foundation  of 
our  New  England  plantations  was  not  Schisme,  division  or 
separation,  but  upon  love,  peace  and  holiness;  yea,  such  love 
and  mutual  care  of  the  Church  of  Leyden,  for  the  spreading 
of  the  Gospel,  the  welfare  of  each  other  and  their  prosperities 
to  succeeding  generations,  as  is  seldom  found  on  earth.” 

The  Puritan  had  a capacity  for  an  honest,  hearty  hatred,  of 
which  I find  no  trace  in  Pilgrim  literature.  Indeed  a personal 


19 


devil  must  have  been  a great  comfort  to  our  Massachusetts 
ancestors,  as  furnishing  an  object  which  they  could  hate  with 
all  their  might,  without  violation  of  Christian  principles. 

The  experience  of  the  Pilgrim  at  Leyden  had  been  an  ex- 
perience of  peace.  There  was  much  in  Holland  to  shock  the 
strictness  of  our  Fathers.  They  viewed,  undoubtedly  with 
great  disfavor,  the  thought  that  they  or  their  children  should 
be  blended  with  either  the  political  or  the  religious  life  of  Hol- 
land. But  they  were  received  at  Leyden  with  an  abundant 
welcome  and  hospitality.  Among  the  most  valuable  lessons 
which  trained  them  for  the  founding  of  their  State,  are  the 
lessons  learned  under  Holland.  The  softening  and  liberalizing 
influence  of  those  eleven  years  on  Robinson  himself  is  clearly 
to  be  discerned. 

Massachusetts  united  Church  and  State  in  the  beginning, 
admitting  none  but  freemen  to  be  Church  members.  Church 
and  State  were  always  separate  in  Plymouth.  There  was 
never  any  “ soul  liberty  ’*  advocated  or  vindicated  by  Roger 
Williams  that  did  not  exist  at  Plymouth.  Certainly,  he  did 
not  leave  Plymouth  on  compulsion.  “ That  great  and  pious 
soul,  Mr.  Winslow,”  he  says,  “melted  and  kindly  visited  me, 
and  put  a purse  of  gold  into  the  hand3  of  my  wife  for  our 
supply.” 

There  is  no  danger  that  we  shall  ever  forget  what  the  children 
of  the  Puritans  have  to  say  in  reply.  They  had  to  preserve 
their  State  from  danger  within  and  without,  from  foe  spiritual 
and  from  foe  temporal.  The  little  company,  with  the  Atlantic 
on  one  hand,  their  only  wall  of  defence  against  the  hatred  of 
King  and  Prelate,  and  the  forest,  home  of  the  savage  and  the 
wild  beast  on  the  other ; it  was  like  a forlorn  hope,  it  was  like 
a forlorn  hope  of  an  army  on  a night  march,  to  which  even  an 


20 


uncautious  whisper  might  be  ruin.  We  do  not  forget,  too, 
that  the  Puritan’s  intolerance  and  superstition  were,  with  the 
single  exception  of  his  brother  at  Plymouth,  the  intolerance  and 
superstition  of  all  mankind,  nor  do  we  forget  that  he  was  among 
the  first  of  all  mankind  to  cast  them  off.  Puritanism  is  a character, 
•a  force,  and  not  a creed.  Let  others,  if  they  like, trace  their  line- 
age to  Norman  Pirate  or  to  Robber  Baron.  The  children  of  the 
Puritan  are  not  ashamed  of  him.  The  Puritan  as  a distinct,  vital 
and  predominant  power,  lived  less  than  a century  in  England. 
■He  appeared  early  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  who  came  to  the 
throne  in  1558,  and  departed  at  the  restoration  of  Charles  II, 
in  1660.  But  in  that  brief  time  he  was  the  preserver,  aye, 
he  was  the  creator  of  English  freedom.  By  the  confession  of 
the  historians  who  most  dislike  him,  it  is  due  to  him  that  there 
is  an  English  Constitution.  He  created  the  modern  House  of 
'Commons.  That  House,  when  he  took  his  seat  in  it,  was  the 
ffeeble  and  timid  instrument  or  despotism.  When  he  left  it,  it  was 
what  it  has  ever  since  been,  the  strongest,  freest,  most  venerable 
legislative  body  the  world  had  ever  seen.  When  he  took  his 
seat  in  it,  it  was  little  more  than  the  register  of  the  King’s 
command.  When  he  left  it,  it  was  the  main  depository  of  the 
national  dignity  and  the  national  will.  King  and  Minister  and 
Prelate,  who  stood  in  his  way,  he  brought  to  the  bar  and  to 
the  block.  In  that  brief  but  crowded  century  he  made  the 
name  of  Englishman  the  highest  title  of  honor  upon  the  earth. 
A great  historian  has  said,  “ The  dread  of  his  invincible  army 
was  on  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Island.”  He  placed  the 
name  of  Johu  Milton  high  on  the  illustrious  roll  of  the  great 
poets  of  the  world,  and  the  name  of  Oliver  Cromwell  highest 
on  the  roll  of  English  sovereigns.  The  historian  might  have 
added  that  the  dread  of  this  invincible  leader  was  on  all  the 


21 


inhabitants  of  Europe.  Puritanism  crossed  the  sea  with  Win- 
throp.  It  planted  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  It  fought 
the  war  of  the  Revolution.  The  spirit  of  English  Puritanism 
was  transformed  into  the  spirit  of  American  liberty.  The 
saviour  of  the  English  Constitution  was  the  creator  of  the- 
Constitutions  of  America,  and,  in  a later  day,  was  their  saviour 
also.  It  put  down  the  Rebellion.  It  abolished  slavery.  It 
kept  the  National  faith.  In  spite  of  the  other  elements  — 
Scandinavian,  German,  Italian,  Celt,  that  are  blending  with' our 
national  life,  under  our  free  hospitality,  it  was  never,  in  my 
judgment,  more  powerful  than  at  this  hour. 

The  children  of  the  Puritan  are  willing  to  accept  any  challenge 
to  a discussion  of  his  character  and  his  title  to  the  respect  of 
mankind,  from  any  antagonist,  east  or  west,  north  or  south,  at 
home  or  abroad,  from  prelate  or  from  conventicle,  from  church- 
man or  from  infidel,  from  foreigner  or  from  degenerate  offspring. 
There  are  some  modern  revilers  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans,, 
who  have  sprung  from  Puritan  loins.  I should  like  to  ask  them 
what  they  make  of  the  single  fact  of  the  founding  of  Harvard 
College.  But  one  of  the  highest  titles  of  Plymouth  to  honor  is 
the  fact,  that,  as  the  two  communities  became  blended,  the  spirit 
of  the  Puritan  was  subdued  and  softened  by  the  spirit  of  the 
Pilgrim. 

I am  not  unmindful  that  there  is  one  high  authority  for  an 
opinion  which,  if  accepted,  would  deprive  John  Robinson  of  his 
highest  glory  and  would  even  rob  the  event  we  celebrate  of  much 
of  its  splendor.  Dr.  Dexter,  the  historian,  the  champion,  the 
lover  of  New  England  Congregationalism,  thinks  that  John 
Robinson  was  speaking  of  Church  government  only,  and  did  not 
mean  to  say  that  there  was  lo  be  expected  from  the  word  of  God 
any  further  light  on  the  essentials  of  Christian  doctrine  or  of 
saving  faith. 


22 


Every  student  of  the  great  things  of  American  history,  every 
son,  every  lover  of  the  Pilgrim,  must  cherish  the  memory  of 
Henry  M.  Dexter.  The  occasion  should  not  pass  without  a word 
of  honor  for  his  name.  What  we  know  of  the  life  of  the  Fathers 
at  Leyden,  and  what  we  know  of  their  origin  in  England,  is  due 
to  him,  I am  not  sure  but  more  than  to  all  other  investigators  put 
together.  It  is  not  surprising  that  this  born  champion  and  com- 
batant should  have  refused  to  concede,  even  to  the  authority  of 
John  Robinson,  that  the  faith  to  which  he  was  born  and  bred  did 
not  contain,  as  expressed  in  its  venerable  formulae,  the  whole 
counsel  of  God.  The  learned  doctor  says,  “I  conceive  it  to  be 
quite  impossible  for  any  candid  person  to  read  carefully  Robin- 
son’s defence  of  the  doctrine  propounded  by  the  Synod  at  Dort, 
without  reaching  the  conclusion  that  the  Leyden  Pastor  was  in 
entire  agreement  with  the  Synod,  not  merely  in  the  articles  of 
faith  which  it  has  formulated,  but  in  that  animus  of  infallibility 
and  inexposure  to  essential  future  modification,  in  which  it  held 
them.”  I have  read  the  volume  carefully  and  with  so  much  of 
candor  as  God  has  vouchsafed  to  me.  While,  undoubtedly,  it 
affirms  and  most  vigorously  defends  that  Calvinistic  faith  which 
the  writer,  and  the  men  of  his  congregation,  held,  and  which  the 
Fathers  brought  with  them  to  Plymouth,  the  faith  which  has 
wrought  for  so  many  ages  such  wonders  for  humanity,  a faith 
which  has  been  held  dear  by  so  many  martyrs  of  liberty,  and  so 
many  of  the  great  builders,  in  the  old  times,  and  in  the  new,  who 
have  builded  States  in  Christian  liberty  and  law,  the  faith  of  the 
founders  of  Republics  in  Switzerland,  in  Holland,  in  England,  in 
New  England,  yet  I can  find  in  that  great  argument  no  animus  of 
infallibility,  and  no  claim  that  the  light  which  is  to  break  forth 
from  the  word  hereafter  may  not  illuminate  them  also,  and  that  it 
will  not  penetrate  the  great  temple  of  Christian  doctriue  instead 


23 


of  being  stayed  in  the  porches  and  approaches.  The  preface  to 
the  defence  of  the  Synod  at  Dort  itself  to  my  apprehension,  states 
as  clearly,  if  not  as  eloquently  or  tersely,  the  doctrine  of  the  fare- 
well address.  Speaking  of  the  substance  of  faith  and  the  very 
essence  of  salvation,  he  rebukes  his  antagonists  for  thinking  that 
they  have  seen  the  whole  of  God’s  truth.  “It  is  true  we  ought 
not,”  he  says,  “to  look  on  our  things  alone,  as  if  we  alone  had 
knowledge,  and  conscience,  and  zeal,  and  souls  to  save:  ‘but 
every  man  also  on  the  things  of  others,’  though  in  some  things 
differing  from  them,  as  having  these  things,  as  well  as  we  : and 
therewith  considering,  that  many  eyes  see  more  than  one,  and 
that  specially  having,  as  so  many  spectacles,  the  advantages  of 
knowledge  of  tongues,  and  arts,  with  daily  travail  in  the  scripture, 
which  in  us  are  wanting.  And  thus  serving  God,  in  all  modesty 
of  mind,  and  being  sincere  in  the  truth  in  love, * we  shall  be  much 
titter,  both  to  help  others,  and  to  be  helped  by  them  in  the  things 
agreeable  thereunto.” 

In  these  words  John  Robinson  sounds  the  keynote  of  his 
distinctively  theological  treatise,  which  he  put  to  press  in  1624, 
four  years  after  the  departure  of  the  Pilgrims  and  only  a year 
before  his  death.  He  was  speaking  not  of  Church  government  or 
ritual  or  form,  or  ceremonial,  but  of  predestination,  of  election, 
of  the  law  of  conscience,  of  the  fall  of  Adam  and  God’s  fore- 
knowledge and  truthfulness,  of  original  sin,  of  baptism,  of  the 
covenant  with  Abraham  and  of  a new  and  better  covenant,  of  the 
five  points  of  Calvinism,  of  the  Declaration  of  the  Synod,  a 
declaration  made  by  men  who  differed  essentially,  in  ritual  and 
church  government,  from  him  and  from  each  other.  And  it  is  of 
these  that  he  declares  that  we  are  not  to  look,  not  to  think  on  our 
things  alone,  as  if  we  alone  had  knowledge,  but  every  man  also  of 
things  of  others,  as  having  eyes  to  see  as  well  as  we,  and  ad- 


24 


vantages  of  knowledge  of  tongues  and  arts,  with  daily  travail  in 
the  scripture,  “which  in  us  are  wanting,”  and  calls  upon  his 
people  “ to  serve  God  in  all  modesty  of  mind,  and  so  to  be  fitter 
•both  to  help  others  and  to  be  helped  by  them.” 

Dr.  Dexter  well  says,  “We  have  too  much  judged  the  Puritans, 
and  too  much  allowed  the  world  to  judge  them,  in  the  light  of  our 
generation  instead  of  the  light  of  their  own  ; forgetting  and  help- 
ing others  to  forget  out  of  what  a horror  of  thick  darkness  they 
were  scarcely  more  than  commencing  to  emerge.”  It  is  the  glory 
of  John  Robinson  that  he  was  conscious  of  the  darkness  of  his 
time,  for,  “saith  he,”  as  Winslow  reports,  “ it  is  not  possible  the 
Christian  world  can  come  so  lately  out  of  such  thick  anti-Christian, 
darkness,  and  that  full  perfection  of  knowledge  should  break 
forth  at  once.” 

The  sublime  utterance  of  John  Robinson  would  become  not 
only  tame  but  petty  and  ludicrous  and  ridiculous,  if  we  were 
to  add  to  it  any  phraseology  which  would  limit  its  meaning,  in 
accordance  with  Dr.  Dexter’s  suggestion. 

John  Robinson  would  have  dreaded  nothing  more  than  to  have 
led  any  weak  brother  astray.  If  he  could  but  have  seen  in  that 
prophetic  vision  into  which  his  soul  was  lifted  and  wrapt  in  the 
mingled  agony  and  joy  of  the  day  of  parting  at  Delft  Haven,  how 
countless  generations  dwelling  in  and  ruling  a continent  larger 
than  Europe  would  hearken  to  the  lofty  music  of  that  utterance, 
how  they  would  rejoice  in  it  as  itself  the  auroral  light  of  the  new 
day  that  was  to  break  forth  from  the  word  of  God,  he  would,  if 
Dr.  Dexter  be  right,  have  hastened  to  add  : 

“Mistake  me  not,  my  brethren  dearly  beloved.  This  re- 
lateth  only  to  the  fashion  of  vestments  ; to  the  posture  of  the 
body  in  prayer ; to  the  authority  of  elders,  and  the  virtue 
conveyed  by  the  imposition  of  hands.  The  horror  of  thick 


25 


darkness,  through  which  the  world  hath  passed,  and  is  yetr 
passing,  still  giveth  light  enough  for  everything  beside.  In 
all  essential  things,  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  though  unknown 
to  Abraham  and  the  Fathers,  to  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  tO' 
all  mankind  before  the  Saviour’s  coming,  and  to  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  mankind  ever  since,  is  fully  known  to  me  and  to  the 
Synod  at  Dort.  No  modesty  of  mind  leadeth  me  to  think  I 
can  be  helped  by  others,  or  that  the  advantages  of  knowledge 
of  tongues  and  arts,  with  daily  travail  in  the  scripture,  which 
in  us  are  wanting,  availeth  aught  in  these  things.” 

It  is  no  rash  conjecture  that  the  first  spirit  whose  pure 
companionship  our  excellent  Dexter  would  have  sought  in  the 
realm  where  he  has  gone,  was  the  spirit  of  John  Robinson. 
He  would  have  already  learned  his  mistake  before  their  meeting. 
As  Beatrice  said  to  Dante  of  Saint  Gregory : — 

“Wherefore,  as  soon  as  he  unclosed  his  eyes, 

Within  this  heaven,  he  at  himself  did  smile.” 

Dr.  Thomas  Fuller,  whose  wit  has  prevented  his  getting  the- 
credit  due  to  his  profound  wisdom,  was  born  in  1608,  within  a 
mile  of  Robert  Browne  and  not  far  from  the  cradle  of  the  Pilgrims 
at  Scrooby  and  Austerfield.  He  was  a clear  eyed  and  not  un- 
sympathetic observer.  He  says  of  the  Pilgrims  in  his  Church 
History  : 

“They  laid  down  two  grand  ground- works  on  which  tlieir 
following  fabric  is  to  be  erected  : 

“First.  Only  to  take  what  was  held  forth  in  God’s  word,- 
leaving  nothing  to  Church  practice  or  human  prudence,  as  but 
the  iron  legs  and  clay  toes  of  that  statue  whose  whole  hand 
and  body  ought  to  be  pure  gold  ; 

“Second.  Because  one  day  teacheth  another,  they  will  not 


26 


Hoe  tied  on  Tuesday  morning  to  maintain  their  tenets  of  Monday 
night,  if  a new  discovery  intervene.” 

Holland,  as  the  researches  of  recent  writers  have  shown,  ex- 
ercised a large  influence  on  civil  and  religious  liberity  in  England. 
The  traces  of  this  influence  appear  in  the  Puritan  commonwealth. 
All  the  Protestant  Reformers  in  Europe  who  rejected  Episcopal 
authority  constituted  one  brotherhood,  and  had  a large  influ- 
ence on  each  other.  All  of  them  regarded  Holland  as  their 
champion  and  defender.  But  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  bore 
to  Holland  a relation  borne  by  no  other.  She  had  been  for 
twelve  years  their  sanctuary,  their  home,  their  school,  their 
university. 

Governor  Bradford  says,  “They  resolved  to  goe  into  the 
low  countries  where  there  was  freedom  of  religion  for  all  men.” 
The  Pilgrim  brought  from  Holland  an  experience  of  freedom, 
civil  and  religious,  then  unknown  elsewhere  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Schiller  says,  “Every  injury  inflicted  by  a tyrant  gave 
a right  of  citizenship  in  Holland. 

The  church  of  the  Pilgrim  had  its  direct  connection  with 
Christ.  There  was  no  human  link  between.  If  He  were 
not  its  rock,  it  had  no  foundation.  If  He  were  not  Its 
Father,  it  had  no  paternity.  If  He  were  not  its  support,  it 
Iiad  no  strength.  If  He  were  not  its  root,  it  was  not  planted 
in  the  soil.  The  church  planted  at  Scrooby  and  Austerfield, 
rooted  at  Leyden,  transplanted  to  Plymouth,  was  a band  of 
•Christians  independent  of  any  earthly  power,  as  direct  an 
emanation  from  the  spirit  of  Christ  as  the  church  first  formed 
at  Antioch.  There  were  but  two  places  on  earth  at  that  day 
where  such  a church  could  abide.  One  was  Holland ; and  the 
other  the  unbroken  wilderness  of  America.  Robinson’s  de- 
finition of  a church  is  this:  “A  company  consisting  though 


27 


of  but  two  or  three,  separated  from  the  world,  whether  un- 
christian or  anti-christian,  gathered  unto  the  name  of  Christ 
by  a covenant  made  to  work  in  all  ways  of  God  known  to 
them,  is  a church,  and  so  hath  the  whole  power  of  Christ.” 

I do  not  know  that  there  is  any  discussion  of  the  principles 
of  civil  liberty  in  Pilgrim  literature.  They  make  no  complaint 
of  merely  political  oppression.  Their  enemy  was  the  hierarchy. 
Their  tyrant  was  the  law  which  enforced  conformity.  But 
they  were  ready  for  self-government.  During  the  first  twelve 
years  they  exercised  all  those  functions  of  government  which 
are  now  performed  in  towns,  counties  and  commonwealths. 

The  Pilgrim  had  seen  in  Holland  the  best  example  ever  seen 
in  his  time,  or  before,  of  municipal  Republican  government. 
The  compact  signed  on  board  the  Mayflower  was  the  necessary 
and  natural  result  of  what  he  had  learned  in  the  Low  Countries. 
The  compact  begins  with  a declaration  that  they  “are  the  loyal 
subjects  of  our  dread  Sovereign,  Lord  King  James,  by  the 
Grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain  and  France  and  Ireland — King, 
defender  of  the  faith,”  etc.,  and  that  they  have  undertaken 
their  voyage  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  honor  of  their  King  and  country.  And 
yet  the  present  necessity  led  them  to  make  what  has  been  called 
the  original  social  compact,  in  the  form  of  as  pure  a Republic 
as  was  ever  known  on  earth  before  or  since.  Indeed  the  doctrine 
on  which  the  Revolution  was  fought  afterward,  of  absolute  in- 
dependence of  the  British  Parliament,  is  clearly  implied  from 
their  original  constitution.  In  De  Rassiere’s  exceedingly  spirited 
letter  describing  Plymouth,  in  the  7th  year  after  the  landing, 
is  the  whole  statement  of  the  contention  of  our  Revolutionary 
fathers  in  one  pregnant  sentence,  “Whereby  they  have  their 
freedom  without  rendering  an  account  to  anyone,  only  if  the 


28 


King  should  choose  to  send  a Governor-General,  they  would 
be  obliged  to  acknowledge  him  as  Sovereign  Chief.”  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  were  impelled  to 
their  emigration  largely  by  the  thirst  for  political  freedom. 
They  dreaded  schism.  Yet  they  were  speedily  compelled  to 
sever  the  tie  with  the  established  Church,  that  Mother  to  whom 
Winthrop  and  Higginson  had  uttered  their  despairing  and  lov- 
ing cry.  When  religious  liberty  set  her  foot  on  the  rock  at 
Plymouth,  her  inseparable  sister,  political  freedom,  came  with 
her.  And  when  political  liberty  landed  at  Salem,  there  could 
be  no  real  separation.  The  other  sister  instantly  followed. 

The  Puritan,  it  is  true,  was  a religious  enthusiast.  But  it 
is  also  true  that  his  history  belongs  to  the  political  and  not  to 
the  religious  history  of  the  race.  His  work  was  the  defence 
of  civil  liberty,  the  framing  of  constitutions  and  statutes,  re- 
sistance to  tyrants,  diplomacy,  conquest,  the  stern  conflict  and 
the  stern  triumph  of  battle.  The  founders  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  men  with  whom  they  took  counsel  and  agreed,  were 
busy,  sagacious,  influential,  and  active  politicians,  intent  on 
political  reforms  in  England  and  on  carrying  out  their  princi- 
ples in  both  countries. 

The  influence  of  the  Pilgrim  is  a spiritual  influence.  His 
soul  thirsted  for  God,  for  the  living  God.  Civil  liberty  came 
to  him  as  an  incident. 

Mr.  Webster  says  that  although  many  of  them  were  Repub- 
licans in  principle,  we  have  no  evidence  that  our  New  England 
ancestors  would  have  emigrated  merely  from  their  dislike  of 
the  political  system  of  Europe.  “ They  fled  not  so  much  from 
English  Government  as  from  the  hierarchy  and  the  laws  which 
enforced  conformity  to  its  establishment.”  He  adds  that  tol- 
eration was  a virtue  beyond  the  conception  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 


29 


and  beyond  her  age  and  that  of  her  succesor.  Both  these 
statements  are  doubtless  true.  But  the  PilgrimFathers  brought 
with  them  the  desire  for  absolute  civil  and  religious  liberty  for 
themselves,  and  they  brought  with  them  an  absolute  purpose 
to  conform  to  the  will  of  God  as  declared  in  the  scriptures  and 
as  interpreted  by  the  individual  conscience.  Especially  they 
brought  with  them  the  Golden  Rule.  The  logical  consequence 
of  these  two  principles,  taken  together,  must  be  inevitably  the 
establishment  of  a perfect  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

The  Pilgrim  had  none  of  the  Puritan’s  harshness,  intolerance 
or  religious  bigotry.  He  was  like  him  in  the  absolute  submis- 
sion of  his  own  will  to  the  will  of  the  Creator,  both  in  per- 
sonal conduct  and  the  conduct  of  the  State,  and  in  deeming  this 
world  as  of  little  account  but  in  its  relation  to  another. 

The  Pilgrim  had  the  Puritan’s  faith  in  a personal  immortality 
and  in  a living  God.  Like  the  Puritan,  he  demanded  absolute 
obedience  to  the  voice  of  conscience  in  the  soul. 

He  was  like  the  Puritan  in  believing  in  a future  life  where 
just  men  were  to  enjoy  immortality  with  those  whom  they  had 
loved  here  : 

He  was  like  the  Puritan  in  that  he  was  comforted  and  sup- 
ported by  that  belief  in  every  sorrow  and  suffering  which  he 
encountered : 

He  was  like  the  Puritan  also  in  believing  in  the  coming  of 
•God’s  Kingdom  in  this  world,  and  that  the  State  he  had  builded 
was  to  abide  and  to  grow,  a community  dwelling  together  in  the 
practice  of  virtue,  in  the  worship  of  God,  in  the  pursuit  of 
truth. 

There  was  no  church  membership,  as  in  Massachusetts,  re- 
quired in  Plymouth  for  political  franchise.  They  had  no 
thought  of  Republicanism  for  themselves  till  the  compact.  But 


30 


they  learned  to  think  of  Republican  government,  without  being 
startled,  from  their  brethren  who  had  been  at  Geneva,  and 
chiefly  from  their  own  sojourn  in  Holland. 

The  Pilgrims  had  seen  in  Holland  the  oldest  and  best  system 
of  common  schools  in  Europe.  Indeed  their  answer  to  the 
charges  sent  from  London  in  1622  gives  ample  evidence  that 
from  the  very  beginning  they  deemed  universal  education  a 
necessary  of  life. 

They  had  seen  in  Holland  the  constant  reading  of  the  Bible 
in  all  households.  There  had  been  twenty-four  editions  of  the 
New  Testament  and  fifteen  of  the  Bible  printed  in  the  vernac- 
ular before  they  left  Leyden. 

They  had  lived  under  the  shadow  of  the  foremost  university 
in  Europe,  which  had  set  them  an  example  of  a large  liberality, 
to  which  Oxford  was  a stranger  till  nearly  250  years  afterward. 

They  had  seen,  and  Brewster  had  wielded,  the  strength  of 
that  irresistible  engine,  a free  press. 

They  had  seen  the  practical  working  of  that  equal  division 
of  inheritance  among  all  the  children,  of  which  Mr.  Webster 
said  here,  u Republican  government  must  inevitably  be  the 
result.” 

They  had  learned  in  Holland  the  importance  and  convenience 
of  a public  registration  of  deeds. 

They  had  seen  the  security  to  individual  freedom  of  a writ- 
ten ballot. 

All  these  things  America  owes  to  the  Pilgrim  of  Plymouth, 
and  the  Pilgrim  of  Plymouth  owes  them  to  Holland. 

There  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock  on  the  21st  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1621: 

A State,  free-born  and  full  grown,  exercising  all  local,  mu- 
nicipal and  national  functions  through  the  voice  of  the  whole 
people,  in  simple  Democratic  majesty  ; 


31 


Ready,  as  its  bounds  grew  and  its  individual  communities- 
multiplied,  for  the  mechanism  of  a perfect  representative  gov- 
ernment ; 

An  independent  church,  having  a direct  connection  with 
Christ,  as  did  the  church  in  the  beginning,  without  human  link 
or  mediation  ; 

A people  mild  both  in  government  and  private  conduct,  tol- 
erant, peaceful,  affectionate,  lovers  of  home,  of  kindred  and 
friends,  apt  for  social  delights,  fond  of  sound  learning  and  the 
refinements  of  domestic  life,  without  the  greed  of  gain  or  the 
lust  of  conquest ; 

But  possessing  a rare  public  spirit,  and  the  high  courage  and; 
aptness  for  command  and  for  success  which  belong  to  the 
English  race  ; 

Made  up  of  gentlemen  and  gentlewomen  to  whom  refinement, 
education,  learning,  and  a noble  behavior  were  necessities  of 
their  nature  : 

Accustomed  to  toil,  privation  and  hardship  ; 

Who  had  seen  the  operation  of  a written  ballot ; 

And  of  a public  registration  of  deeds  ; 

And  an  equal  distribution  of  inheritance  among  the  children. 

This  little  State  existed  for  seventy-two  years.  It  enacted  the 
mildest  code  of  laws  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  There  were  but 
eight  capital  offences  in  Plymouth.  There  were  thirty-one  in 
England  at  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Sir  James  Mack- 
intosh held  in  his  hand  a list  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-three- 
when  he  addressed  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century.  They  established  trial  by  jury.  They 
treated  the  Indians  with  justice  and  good  faith,  setting  an  exam- 
ple which  Vattel,  the  foremost  writer  on  the  law  of  nations,  com- 
mends to  mankind.  Their  good  sense  kept  them  free  from  the 


32 


^witchcraft  delusions.  They  were  not  unprepared  for  a spirited 
self-defence,  as  witness  Miles  Standish’s  answer  to  the  challenge 
of  the  Narragansett,  and  his  stern  summary  justice  at  Wey- 
mouth. They  held  no  foot  of  land  not  fairly  obtained  by 
honest  purchase.  No  witch  was  ever  hung  there.  In  their 
earlier  days  their  tolerance  was  an  example  to  Roger  Wiliams 
himself.  He  has  left  on  record  his  gratitude  for  the  generous 
friendship  of  Winslow.  Gov.  Bradford’s  courtesy  entertained 
the  Catholic  Priest,  who  was  his  guest,  with  a fish  dinner  on 
Friday.  If,  like  Roger  Williams  himself,  they  failed  some- 
what, as  in  the  case  of  the  Quakers,  in  the  practical  application 
of  a principle  for  which  the  world  was  not  ready,  their  practice 
and  their  principles  soon  came  to  be  in  accord.  When  we  re- 
member that  some  of  our  Baptist  friends  wanted  the  term 
“damnable  heretics”  to  include  Unitarians  and  to  have  them 
banished,  that  within  a year  from  the  beginning  of  the  Revo- 
lution New  York  shut  out  Catholic  priests  from  her  limits  under 
the  penalty  of  death,  and  that  in  Maryland  it  was  a capital 
crime  to  be  a Unitarian  as  late  as  1770,  you  will  hardly  care 
to  join  in  severe  condemnation  of  the  Fathers  of  Plymouth. 
And  when  at  last,  in  1692,  Plymouth  was  blended  with  Massa- 
chusetts, the  days  of  bigotry  and  intolerance  and  superstition, 
as  a controlling  force  in  Massachusetts,  were  over,. 

The  past  is  not  secure  unless  it  be  followed  by  a worthy  future. 
The  Pilgrim  will  fail  unless  his  posterity  be  fit  to  keep  his  fame. 
Has  the  experience  of  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  strength- 
ened or  weakened  the  influence  of  the  Pilgrim’s  character,  or  the 
power  in  human  history  of  the  faith,  the  principles,  and  the  insti- 
tutions which  he  brought  with  him  when  he  landed  upon  the  rock  ? 
Do  they  vindicate  their  authority  in  personal  conduct,  and  the 
conduct  of  States?  Are  they  stronger  or  weaker  now  than  then? 


33 


How  far  have  we  kept  the  faith  of  the  Fathers?  Are  we  to  trans- 
mit it  unimpaired  to  our  children?  What  have  we  of  rational  hope 
that  our  children  will  transmit  it  in  turn  unimpaired  to  their  heirs? 
It  is  well,  I think,  that  at  no  infrequent  periods  this  account 
should  be  taken. 

Are  the  devout  religious  faith,  obedience  to  the  voice  of  con- 
science in  the  soul  as  a guide  to  the  individual  and  the  State,  civil 
liberty,  civil  government,  liberty  in  religion,  the  quality  of  the 
English  race,  and  the  free  institutions  brought  by  the  Fathers 
from  England  and  Holland  and  established  here,  blended  and  in 
harmony  in  the  character  of  a great  people,  living  and  strong 
to-day  as  they  were  in  the  first  generation?  Do  we  leave  them 
unimpaired  to  our  children?  Are  they  to  abide? 

One  thing  we  must  not  fail  to  observe.  It  is  quite  clear  that 
when  we  consider  the  elements  I have  imperfectly  described, 
which  gave  the  Pilgrim  State  its  distinctive  character,  that  no 
one  of  them  could  be  spared,  if  that  distinctive  character  is  to  be 
maintained.  Probably  as  bright  examples  of  each  could  be  found 
elsewhere.  It  is  the  fact  that  these  shining  qualities  were  united 
and  blended  in  the  Pilgrim  that  gives  him  his  distinction. 

The  Pilgrim  was  possessed  by  an  intense  religious  faith,  and  for 
it  he  was  ready  to  encounter  suffering  and  death.  But  there  are 
plenty  of  examples  in  history  of  a religious  faith  as  intense,  to 
which  its  votaries  have  been  ready  to  make  as  absolute  a sur- 
render of  self,  which  the  Pilgrim  would  have  accounted  as  a 
gross  superstition.  Gerald,  the  assassin  of  William  the  Silent, 
was  as  sure  he  was  doing  the  will  of  God  as  was  his  victim. 
TTe  met  his  death  and  the  terrible  torture  which  preceded 
it  with  a courage  as  undaunted  as  that  of  any  hero  in  history. 
He  fortified  himself  for  his  crime  by  reading  the  Bible, 
by  fasting  and  prayer,  and  then,  full  of  religious  exaltation, 

3 


34 


dreaming  of  angels  and  of  Paradise,  he  departed  for  Delft,  and 
completed  his  duty  as  a good  Catholic  and  faithful  subject. 
When  his  judges  questioned  him,  when  they  condemned  him 
to  have  his  hand  enclosed  in  a tube,  seared  with  a red  hot  iron, 
to  have  his  arms  and  legs  and  thighs  torn  to  pieces  with  burn- 
ing pincers,  his  heart  to  be  torn  out  and  thrown  into  his  face,  his 
head  to  be  dissevered  from  his  trunk  and  placed  on  a pike,  hi& 
body  to  be  cut  into  four  pieces,  and  every  piece  to  be  hung  on 
a gibbet  over  one  of  the  principal  gates  of  the  city,  he  showed 
no  sign  of  terror,  no  sorrow,  or  surprise.  Fixing  his  dauntless 
eye  on  his  judges,  he  repeated  with  steady  voice  his  customary 
words,  ‘ ‘ Ecce  homo  ! ’ ’ 

The  Moslem,  the  Indian,  the  Hindoo  meet  torture  and  death 
with  a courage  as  dauntless  as  that  of  the  Pilgrim. 

The  subjection  of  the  individual  will  to  the  law  of  duty,, 
whether  in  personal  conduct  or  the  conduct  of  states,  is  as  ma- 
nifest in  the  Spartan  as  in  the  Puritan,  and  has  had  many  ex- 
amples since  the  day  when  the  epitaph  of  the  300  was  inscrib- 
ed at  Thermopylae : 

Stranger!  tell  it  to  Lacedaemon, 

That  we  lie  here  in  obedience  to  her  laws. 

The  love  of  freedom  appears  and  has  burned  brightly  in  the 
bosoms  of  men  of  all  races  and  of  all  ages.  We  have  no  right 
to  make  a claim  for  the  Pilgrim  which  we  cannot  allow  to  the 
Athenian  or  the  Swiss,  or  the  Swede,  or  the  Scotsman.  The 
Dutch,  or  the  Swedish,  or  the  Scotch  characteristics  differ 
widely  from  those  of  the  men  who  settled  Plymouth. 

The  institutions  which  the  Pilgrim  brought  from  Holland,  he 
left  in  Holland. 

The  institutions  he  brought  from  Englaud,  he  left  in  England. 


35 


The  English  aptness  for  command  and  habit  of  success,  in- 
domitable courage,  unconquerable  perseverance  belonged  to  this 
race  before  the  movement  for  religious  freedom,  and  exist  in 
the  English  race  to-day  wherever  it  is  found. 

The  English  language  and  literature  are  possessions  shared 
by  the  whole  English-speaking  race. 

To  ask,  therefore,  whether  the  Pilgrim  character  is  to  abide, 
is  to  ask  whether  the  great  qualities  we  have  ascribed  to  the 
Pilgrim  are  to  remain  blended,  united,  living,  though  perhaps 
softened,  in  the  lapse  of  years. 

I suppose  we  must  admit  it  to  be  true  that  with  men  of 
thoughtful,  instructed,  conscientious  natures,  the  authority  of 
the  statement  of  religious  faith  that  satisfied  the  Pilgrim,  has 
been  shaken  in  recent  times  chiefly  by  two  causes : 

1st.  The  researches  of  modern  science  have  occasioned  disbe- 
lief in  the  scripture  narrative  of  the  creation,  and  in  the  mirac- 
ulous suspension  of  natural  laws  which  the  scripture  records, 
and  on  which  the  claim  of  Christianity  was  largely  rested  in 
earlier  days. 

2d.  The  modern  knowledge  of  the  physical  frame  of  man 
seems  to  establish  the  existence  of  physical  causes  for  what  our 
Fathers  were  wont  to  consider  purely  spiritual  manifestations, 
and  so  to  make  it  seem  more  likely  that  the  soul  depends  for 
its  own  existence  and  capacity  for  action  upon  the  continued 
existence  of  the  body. 

The  religious  faith  of  mankind,  declared  in  different  periods, 
always  makes  use  of  the  framework,  the  setting,  the  imagery, 
the  illustration,  which  is  furnished  by  the  accepted  scientific 
knowledge  of  the  time  when  it  is  uttered.  Certainly  to  this  the 
teaching  of  our  Bible,  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the 
New,  is  no  exception.  These  beliefs,  taught  from  very  impel*- 


36 


feet  scientific  information,  seem  to  be  inseparably  and  inextri- 
cably blended  with  the  moral  and  religions  truths  which  they 
have  been  used  to  illustrate,  and  to  render  conceivable.  At 
every  forward  step  of  science,  as  she  makes  some  new  revela- 
tion to  her  students,  she  seems  to  overthrow  the  religion  of 
which  she  has  been  the  handmaid.  So  every  great  discoverer 
in  science,  from  Galileo  to  Darwin,  from  the  discovery  of  grav- 
itation and  the  slow  geologic  processes  of  the  planting  of  the 
coal  and  the  formation  of  the  rocks  to  the  discovery  of  the 
evolution  and  kindred  of  all  animate  nature,  appears  to  the 
teacher  of  the  accepted  religion  of  the  time  as  a skeptic  if  not 
as  an  infidel.  No  astonishment  could  exceed  that  of  John  Rob- 
inson if  he  could  hear  the  scientific  illustrations  by  which  the 
most  conservative  and  orthodox  of  his  Calvinist  successors  un- 
dertake to^make  plain  the  counsel  of  God  to  a congregation  of 
most  obedient  and  docile  disciples  to-day.  So  every  period  of 
scientific  progress  seems  to  a superficial  observer  to  be  a 
period  of  religious  and  spiritual  retrogression. 

Does  the  faith  that  supported  the  Pilgrims,  the  faith  in  a 
personal  immortality,  in  a conscious  and  benevolent  Creator  of 
the  world  who  watches  its  affairs  with  a personal  intelligence, 
and  directs  them  with  a loving  purpose,  as  a father  guideth  his 
children,  abide  unimpaired  as  an  influenee  in  the  government 
of  States  and  of  personal  conduct  to-day  ? This  is  the  theme  of 
all  themes,  the  question  of  all  questions.  It  cannot  be  passed  by 
on  any  solemn  public  occasion  which  is  devoted  to  the  memory 
of  the  Pilgrims.  I think,  speaking  for  myself,  that  when  the 
new  law  which  science  has  shown  to  us  becomes  clear,  not  only 
to  the  genius  which  has  first  perceived  it,  but  to  the  common 
apprehension  of  mankind,  the  eternal  verities  of  a conscious 
.and  benevolent ^preator,  and  a personal,  human  immortality  re- 


37 


appear  clearer  and  stronger.  Even  the  skepticism  of  modem 
thought  will  at  least  agree  to  this,  that  the  faith  in  righteous- 
ness, the  willingness  of  mankind  to  obey  a law  higher  than 
their  own  desire,  grows  stronger  from  age  to  age.  It  was  never 
stronger  than  to-day.  The  belief  in  what  has  been  called  the 
power  in  this  world  that  makes  for  righteousness  is  stronger 
than  ever,  even  in  the  minds  of  men  who  reject  a miraculous 
or  a religious  sanction  of  its  commands.  The  faith  in  miracles 
may  have  abated.  The  miracle  may  have  been  consigned  to 
a place  among  the  lower  and  grosser  arguments  which  enforce 
obedience  to  the  divine  behest  of  duty.  It  is  at  best  but  milk 
for  babes.  But  the  faith  drawn  from  the  history  of  the  con- 
stant law  which  prevails  in  the  ordinary  government  of  the 
universe  has  more  than  taken  its  place. 

The  scientific  inquirer  makes  his  inquiry  from  a love  of  truth; 
and  the  lover  of  truth  will  never  be  other  than  an  obeyer  of 
duty. 

Science  traces  the  imperceptible  steps  by  which  inorganic 
matter  reaches  life,  sensation,  consciousness,  will,  conscience. 
She  tells  us,  if  we  understand  her,  that  in  uncounted,  perhaps 
unimaginable  ages  the  atoms  of  dead  dust  have  stirred  and 
quickened  into  vegetable  life.  The  vegetable  has  become  con- 
scious of  an  animal  nature.  The  animal  acquires  human  intel- 
ligence. But  the  voice  of  duty  was  full  and  clear  in  the  morn- 
ing of  creation.  The  voice  which  Adam  disobeyed,  to  which 
Abel  and  Abraham  listened,  to  which  the  Prophets  and  Pilgrims 
gave  their  lives,  was  heard  in  fullest  strength  when  the  human 
intelligence  first  became  conscious  of  itself.  Ever  it  overcomes 
and  masters  all  the  forces  which  science  discovers  or  compre- 
hends. 

Groping  science  lays  bare  the  cells  and  brings  under  its  mi- 


38 


croscope  the  minute  powder  in  whose  gray  globules  are  held  in 
store  all  thoughts  and  memories.  But  the  will,  lord  of  thought, 
summoning  memory  from  its  cell  with  sovereign  power,  still 
dwells  in  its  cloud,  mysterious,  unapproachable,  inaccessible. 

Science  from  age  to  age  tells  us  more  and  more  of  the  phy- 
sical instrument  by  which  the  mind  — the  will  — enforces  its 
commands.  It  lays  bare  the  mechanism,  the  secret  spring  by 
which  the  physical  frame  is  set  in  motion.  But  it  has  added 
nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  the  mind  itself,  of  the  spiritual 
being  which  is  conscious  of  itself,  which  in  its  sublime  freedom 
chooses  for  itself  the  law  which  it  will  obey,  and  even  when  it 
pays  its  homage  to  its  Creator,  or  to  His  mandate  of  duty,  pays 
only  a free  and  voluntary  homage. 

If  any  man  doubt  that  the  faith  in  justice  and  righteousness, 
and  their  power  as  a practical  force  in  the  government  of  the 
world  is  increasing  from  age  to  age,  whatever  may  be  the  sanc- 
tion, let  him  read  the  lives  of  the  men  who  for  the  past  gen- 
eration have  been  chosen  by  Great  Britain  for  the  government 
of  her  250  million  subjects  in  the  East.  An  almost  unlimited 
power,  gained  without  scruple,  used  for  generations  as  a pro- 
vision for  the  children  of  her  upper  classes,  has  become  stead- 
ily and  surely  an  example  of  moderation,  humanity  and  justice. 
There  can  be  found  few  finer  examples  of  the  character  of  the 
great  race  from  which  we  are  so  proud  to  be  descended,  than 
Lord  Lawrence,  or  Lord  Mayo,  or  Sir  James  Stephen. 

The  u Sahibs  do  not  understand  or  like  us,”  said  the  Indian 
scholar  to  Mr.  Monier  Williams.  “ But  they  try  to  be  just 
and  do  not  fear  the  face  of  man.” 

The  belief  in  miracles  may  have  diminished  in  strength.  But 
religious  faith  is  only  a sanction  of  the  moral  law.  The  belief 
in  a prevalence  of  that  law  as  a controlling  force  in  the  world 


39 


•has  not  abated.  It  abides.  The  sanction  of  God’s  law  by 
miracles  has  given  place  to  a sanction  by  His  constant  and 
•eternal  providence. 

There  is  doubtless  to-day  great  impatience  of  ecclestiasical 
authority,  of  creeds — the  devices  by  which  men  seek  to  narrow 
and  limit  the  infinite  truth  of  God,  or  to  thrust  their  weak  and 
fallible  power  between  the  soul  and  its  Creator.  But  the  faith 
that  there  came  to  this  world  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  a 
majestic  Being,  divinely  commissioned,  announcing  a perfect 
rule,  and  Himself  a perfect  example,  for  human  conduct,  was 
never  so  powerful  as  at  this  moment. 

Is  the  principle  of  self-government  in  civil  liberty  as  strong 
to-day  with  us  as  with  the  Fathers  at  Plymouth?  John  Cotton 
wrote  to  Lord  Say  in  1636  : 

“ Democracy  I do  not  conceive  that  ever  God  did  ordain  as 
a fit  government,  either  in  Church  or  Commonwealth.  If  the 
people  be  Governors,  who  shall  be  governed?” 

John  Cotton’s  question  is  almost  the  greatest  question  of  all 
history  and  all  destiny.  The  American  answer  to  it  is  that  if 
the  people  be  the  governors,  the  people  shall  be  the  governed. 
The  human  will  voluntarily  and  in  freedom  subjecting  itself  to 
a law  higher  than  its  own  desire,  is  the  sublimest  thing  in  the 
universe,  except  its  Creator.  We  have  forty-five  sovereign  States 
united  in  an  imperial  Republic,  each  one  of  which  has  written 
in  its  constitution  that  those  things  which  are  forbidden  by  the 
moral  law  and  the  law  of  justice  shall  not  be  enacted  in  the 
government  of  the  State  by  any  human  authority  or  accom- 
plished by  any  human  desire.  They  have  created  a mechanism 
perfect  as  the  lot  of  humanity  will  admit  for  securing  this 
restraint.  Every  generation  has  had  and  will  have  its  own 
temptations,  and  has  committed  and  will  commit  its  own  of- 


40 


fences.  But  you  will  all  agree  with  me  that  not  only  the  love 
of  liberty,  but  the  strength  of  these  constitutional  restraints 
on  the  present  desires  of  an  impatient  people  grows  stronger 
from  generation  to  generation  and  from  age  to  age.  I think 
our  generation  understands  better  than  it  was  ever  understood 
before  that  there  is  something  far  more  than  the  love  of  free- 
dom, something  far  higher  than  freedom  itself,  essential  to  a 
great  State  or  to  a great  soul.  Freedom  is  but  the  removal 
of  obstacles.  Freedom  may  be  for  the  savage  as  for  the 
Christian,  for  the  hyena  as  for  the  dove.  When  the  fetter 
has  been  stricken  from  the  limbs,  when  the  caged  or  chained 
eagle  soars  into  the  sky,  the  time  has  come  for  labor,  for  dis- 
cipline, for  obedience.  The  freest  people  must  submit  to  the- 
severest  and  most  strenuous  sense  of  obligation,  if  it  would 
lift  itself  to  its  own  ideals.  It  must  listen  to  a voice  of  high- 
er authority  than  its  own.  The  voice  of  the  people  is  not  the- 
voice  of  God.  That  sentiment  is  alike  false  and  impious. 

The  principles  of  the  American  constitutions  pervade  the  en- 
tire continent.  As  the  child  who  goes  out,  poor  and  obscure 
from  his  birthplace  to  seek  his  fortune,  comes  back  again  suc- 
cessful and  honored  and  strong  to  enrich  the  parental  dwelling, 
so  the  principles  of  civil  liberty  in  constitutional  restraints- 
which  have  possessed  the  American  continent  from  Hudson's  Bay 
to  Cape  Horn,  have  crossed  the  Atlantic  again  to  possess  the 
countries  of  their  origin.  England  is  almost  a Republic  in 
everything  but  name.  France,  after  two  failures,  has  become 
a permanent  member  of  the  family  of  free  states,  while  in 
Southern  and  Oriental  seas  where  the  adventurous  ships  of  our 
Fathers,  long  after  the  American  constitution  was  framed,  found 
nothing  but  barbarism  and  savagery,  the  great  Australasian 
Commonwealths  are  rising  in  splendor  and  in  glory  to  take,  at 


41 


no  distant  day,  a place  perhaps  foremost  in  the  family  of  self- 
governing  nations.  There  is  to-day  no  monarchy  on  American 
soil,  unless  we  except  the  loose  hanging  power  still  retained 
by  her  Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  over  the  British  possessions  on 
the  north. 

If  there  be  one  thing  more  than  another  which  is  the  settled 
purpose  of  intelligent  and  educated  men  and  women  who  are* 
are  to  be,  and  ought  to  be  the  governing  forces  in  all  Christ- 
ian nations,  it  is  that  the  relation  of  man  to  his  Creator  shall 
be  a question  for  the  individual  soul,  and  shall  not  be  used  as 
an  instrument  by  any  human  power  or  authority.  Our  Fathers 
dreaded  the  power  of  the  Catholic  Church.  But  I think  we  are 
quite  apt  to  forget  that  the  “fury  of  the  Bishops”  from  which 
Milton  says  they  fled,  was  the  fury  of  Protestant  Bishops. 
Religious  intolerance  was  the  error  and  crime  of  past  ages,  uni- 
versal but  with  few  exceptions,  and  belonged  to  all  churches  alike. 
The  witchcraft  delusion  prevailed  in  Protestant  England  and 
in  Puritan  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  among  the  Catholic  nations 
of  the  continent.  Protestant  counsellors  governed  the  monarch  by 
whose  orders  the  body  of  Oliver  Cromwell  was  disinterred  from, 
its  resting-place  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  the  head  — nobler 
and  more  august  than  any  in  the  long  line  of  English  sover- 
eigns since  the  day  of  Alfred  — was  exposed  to  public  indig- 
nity on  Temple  Bar.  To-day  Catholic  France  is  as  tolerant  as 
Protestant  Massachusetts.  Catholic  Italy  has  thrown  off  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Papacy.  There  has  been  no  nobler 
tribute  in  recent  years  to  the  memory  of  the  Pilgrim,  and  to 
civil  and  religious  freedom  than  that  uttered  in  Plymouth  ten 
years  ago  by  a Catholic  poet.  I know  of  no  more  eloquent 
and  stirring  statement  anywhere  of  a lofty  American  patriotism 
than  that  by  Father  Conaty,  an  Irish  Catholic  priest,  in  my 


42 


own  city  of  Worcester,  when  the  portrait  of  our  Irish  hero, 
Sergeant  Plunkett,  was  hung  on  the  walls  of  Mechanics’  Hall. 

In  Massachusetts  alone  at  least  fifty-six  per  cent,  of  her  people 
are  of  foreign  parentage.  Probably  thirty  per  cent,  of  her  people 
are  of  the  Catholic  faith.  They  came  here,  most  of  them, 
driven  by  an  extreme  poverty  from  homes  where  for  centuries 
they  had  been  the  victims  of  an  almost  intolerable  oppression. 
They  have  grave  faults,  which  it  is  not  part  of  a true  friend- 
ship or  a true  respect  to  attempt  to  hide  or  to  gloss  over.  But 
I hold  it  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  one  of  the  most  en- 
couraging facts  in  our  history  that  this  great  stream  which  has 
poured  into  our  State  within  the  memory  of  living  men  who 
are  not  yet  old,  has  changed  so  little  the  character  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  has  had,  on  the  whole,  so  favorable  an  influence 
upon  her  history  and  causes  so  little  reasonable  apprehension 
for  the  future.  Massachusetts  has  educated  the  foreigner.  She 
is  making  an  American  of  him.  She  is  surely,  and  not  very 
slowly,  when  we  consider  the  great  periods  that  constitute  the 
life  of  a State,  impressing  upon  him  what  is  best  of  the  Pil- 
grim and  the  Puritan  quality  and  the  Pilgrim  and  the  Puritan 
conception  of  a State.  I look  with  an  unquestioning  hope  upon 
the  future  of  Massachusetts.  Nothing  can  stay  her  in  her 
great  career,  unless  evil  and  low  ambition  shall  stir  up  strife 
where  there  should  be  peace,  hatred  where  there  should  be 
sympathy,  and  the  conflict  of  religious  sect  and  creed  where 
there  should  be  nothing  but  common  Christian  faith  and  com- 
mon Christian  love. 

There  is  a story  of  an  Irish  traveller  who  touched  his  hat  to 
the  statue  of  Jupiter  in  Rome.  He  said  in  explanation  that 
he  was  afraid  the  old  fellow  might  come  into  power  again. 
The  old  Giants,  Pope  and  Pagan,  had  become  harmless  in  their 


43 


caverns  so  long  ago  as  the  time  when  Bunyan’s  Pilgrim  passed 
by  on  his  way  to  the  holy  city.  They  are  no  more  dangerous 
now.  Timorous  and  Mistrust,  Mr.  Ready-to-halt  and  Mr. 
Feeble-mind,  may  turn  pale  and  their  knees  may  tremble  with 
dread  of  these  ancient  spectres.  They  may  hide  themselves  in 
caverns  of  their  own  to  take  counsel  for  mutual  protection. 
They  cannot  frighten  the  American  people.  Still  less  will  the 
sons  of  the  Pilgrims  be  disturbed.  We  do  not  meet  tyranny 
or  bigotry  or  despotism  or  priestcraft  with  weapons  like  their  own. 
We  have  learned  other  lessons  from  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 
Leave  liberty  to  encounter  despotism.  Leave  freedom  to  deal 
with  slavery.  Leave  tolerance  to  meet  intolerance.  Set  the 
eagle  to  deal  with  the  bat.  Let  in  upon  the  marsh  and  upon 
the  swamp  the  pure  air  and  the  fresh  breeze.  Open  the  win- 
dows into  the  cold  dungeon  and  dark  cellar  and  let  in  the  sun's 
light  and  the  sun’s  warmth. 

The  Pilgrims  were  Englishmen.  Their  children  are,  in  the 
essentials  of  national  character,  Englishmen  still.  We  have  a 
great  admixture  of  other  races.  But  it  is  an  admixture  chief- 
ly from  those  Northern  races  of  which  England  herself  was 
composed.  In  spite  of  past  conflicts  and  present  rivalry  Eng- 
land is  the  nation  closest  to  us  in  affection  and  sympathy. 
The  English  language  is  ours.  English  literature  is  perhaps 
more  familiar  to  the  bulk  of  our  people  than  to  Englishmen 
themselves.  The  English  Bible  is  still  our  standard  of  speech, 
our  inspiration,  our  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  We  look  to 
English  authority  in  the  administration  of  our  system  of  law 
and  equity.  English  aptness  for  command,  habit  of  success, 
indomitable  courage,  unconquerable  perseverance  have  been, 
are,  and  are  to  remain  the  American  quality.  The  men  of 
other  blood  who  come  here  acquire  and  are  penetrated  with  the 


44 


English,  or  perhaps  without  boasting  or  vanity  we  may  say,, 
the  American  spirit.  The  great  bulk  of  our  people  are  of  En- 
glish blood.  But  by  the  spirit,  which  has  its  own  pedigree,  its 
own  ancestry,  its  own  law  of  descent  and  of  inheritance,  we 
are  English  even  more  than  by  any  tie  of  physical  kinship.  It 
is  of  this  pedigree  of  the  spirit,  governed  by  forces  of  which 
science  has  as  yet  given  us  no  account,  that  we  are  taking  ac- 
count to-day.  It  is  by  virtue  of  its  laws  that  John  Winthrop 
counts  George  Washington  among  his  posterity.  James  Otis 
transmits  his  quality  to  Charles  Sumner.  Emerson  may  well 
be  reckoned  the  spiritual  child  of  Bradford  ; Charming  the  spirit- 
ual child  of  John  Robinson  ; and  Miles  Standish  the  progenitor 
of  Grant.  The  great-hearted  Hebrew  prophet  has  many  a de- 
scendant among  the  great-hearted  Puritans.  In  this  genealogy 
the  men  of  Thermopylae  are  no  aliens  to  the  men  of  Bunker 
Hill.  When  the  boy  who  went  out  from  a New  England  dwel- 
ling to  meet  death  at  Gettysburg  or  Antietam  with  no  motive 
but  the  love  of  country  and  the  sense  of  duty,  shall  meet, 
where  he  is  gone,  the  men  who  fought  the  livelong  day  with 
Wellington  or  obeyed  Nelson’s  immortal  signal,  he  shall 
“ Claim  kindred  there,  and  have  the  claim  allowed.” 

What  I said  just  now  was  written  more  than  ten  days  # ago. 
Let  it  stand.  Let  it  stand.  It  is  well  that  these  two  great 
nations  should  know  something  of  each  other  that  they  do  not 
get  from  their  metropolitan  press,  whether  in  London  or  in  New 
York.  Each  of  them  should  know  that  if  it  enter  into  a quar- 
rel with  the  other  it  is  to  be  a contest  with  that  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  which  is  most  like  to  itself.  The  quarrel 

* During  those  ten  days,  the  note  of  Mr.  Olney,  Secretary  of  State,  to  Lord 
Salisbury,  and  the  message  of  President  Cleveland  to  Congress  on  the  Venezue- 
lan question  had  been  published. 


45 


will  be  maintained  on  both  sides  until  Anglo-Saxon,  until 
English,  until  American  endurance  is  exhausted.  For  that 
reason,  if  for  no  other,  such  a conflict  should  never  begin. 

This  whole  thing  is  very  simple.  We  cannot  permit  any 
weak  power  on  this  continent  to  be  despoiled  of  its  territory, 
or  to  be  crowded  out  of  its  rights,  by  any  strong  power  any- 
where. England  would  not  permit  us  to  do  that  to  Belgium 
or  to  Denmark.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  no  title  to  in- 
terfere with  the  established  boundaries  of  English  territory, 
whether  we  like  them  or  do  not  like  them.  All  between  those 
two  limits  is  subject  for  discussion  and  arbitration  : subject  for 
that  international  arbitration  which  a delegation  of  English 
members  of  Parliament  came  to  Boston  a few  years  ago  to  im- 
press upon  us,  saying  that  in  their  desire  for  its  establishment 
they  represented  the  opinions  of  a large  majority  of  the  English 
House  of  Commons. 

The  settlement  of  pending  differences  upon  these  principles 
will  be  compelled  by  the  business  men  and  the  religious  senti- 
ment of  these  two  nations,  influences  always  irresistible  when 
they  are  united  and  when  they  are  brought  to  bear  upon  large 
matters  of  national  and  international  import. 

But  you  have  not  gathered  here  for  philosophical,  or  political, 
or  historical  disquisition.  This  day  is  for  the  expression  of 
filial  love.  The  thoughts  which  are  never  strangers  to  the 
bosoms  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Pilgrims  are  to  be 
stimulated  and  intensified  under  the  operation  of  that  mysteri- 
ous law  by  which,  in  a large  assembly,  or  when  a whole  people 
unite  in  a common  observance,  the  emotion  in  each  individual 
heart  is  increased  and  multiplied  by  the  emotion  of  every  other. 
This  is  a larger  Thanksgiving  Day.  To-day  the  children  of 
the  Pilgrims,  wherever  on  the  continent  or  on  the  face  of  the 


46 


earth  they  dwell,  are  thinking  of  their  Fathers.  They  are 
thinking  of  the  holy  men,  of  the  sweet  and  comely  matrons,  of 
the  brave  youths  and  beautiful  maidens  to  whom  this  coast  and 
these  forest  glades  were  familiar  in  the  infancy  of  Plymouth. 
Their  hearts  are  full  of  the  lofty  tragedy  and  lofty  triumph. 
We  think  of  the  death  of  Carver,  of  Dorothy  Bradford,  of  the 
sweet  Rose  Standish,  as  if  they  had  happened  in  our  own  house- 
holds ; as  if  our  Mothers  had  told  us  the  story  of  some  other 
children  who  had  died  under  our  father’s  roof  before  we  could 
remember.  It  is  as  real  as  if  it  happened  yesterday.  It  shall 
be  as  real  as  if  it  happened  yesterday  until  time  shall  be  no 
more.  What  presence  looks  over  the  Bay  to-day  more  living 
than  the  warrior  figure  of  Miles  Standish?  What  household 
memory  is  dearer  to  us  than  that  of  John  Carver,  of  whom  it 
has  been  so  well  said:  “The  column  of  smoke  from  the  vol- 
ley fired  at  his  grave  was  his  only  monument.” 

There  is  no  tragedy  in  all  fiction,  not  the  death  of  Hector, 
not  the  sorrow  of  CEdipus,  not  the  guilt  of  Macbeth,  not  the 
wounded  heart  of  Lear,  like  this  true  and  simple  story.  The 
Atlantic  between  these  men  and  women  and  their  homes  in 
beautiful  England,  the  horrors  of  the  stormy  passage,  the  land- 
ing in  December,  the  terrible  suffering  of  the  first  winter,  but 
six  or  seven  men  able  to  tend  the  sick  or  bury  the  dead,  when 
the  spring  came  seven  times  as  many  graves  as  dwellings, 
strong  men  staggering  at  their  work  at  noonday  by  reason  of 
fainting  for  want  of  food,  the  challenge  of  the  savage,  the 
howling  of  the  wild  beast,  and  yet  there  is  nothing  in  it  of 
sorrow,  nothing  in  it  except  lofty  triumph.  The  Pilgrims  had 
no  regrets.  There  is  no  gloom  in  their  annals.  The  tragedies 
of  history,  after  all,  are  its  richest  blessings  and  most  precious 
memories.  We  mourn  for  those  whom  the  fate  of  war  has 


47 


bereaved  of  their  kindred,  or  whose  life  has  been  made  a burden 
by  the  loss  of  health  or  limb.  Yet  would  the  mother  have  her 
son  back  again  at  the  price  of  having  the  brave  deed  undone? 
Would  the  widow  clasp  her  husband’s  form  again,  if  she  could 
buy  him  back  at  the  price  of  striking  his  name  from  the  list  of 
heroes?  Does  the  crippled  and  wounded  veteran  wish  he  had 
staid  at  home,  if  in  that  way  he  could  get  back  his  health  or 
his  limb? 

Bradford’s  history  is  a brave  and  cheerful  story.  Think, 
too,  of  this  story  of  the  founding  of  a great  nation  with  no 
fable  in  it.  The  Pilgrims  were  followed  by  a generation  in- 
capable of  boasting,  and  quite  otherwise  occupied.  One  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  passed  before  anybody  celebrated  anything 
they  had  done.  There  is  the  loving  tribute  of  friendship.  But 
the  praise  was  for  God. 

There  is  surely,  as  I said  in  the  beginning,  no  statelier  or 
loftier  presence  in  human  history  than  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth. 
What  belongs  to  a high  behavior,  to  a simple,  severe  but  deli- 
cate taste  in  dress,  in  architecture,  in  house-furnishing,  in  the 
decoration  and  adornment  of  daily  life,  they  discerned  with  un- 
erring taste.  The  satire  of  Hudibras,  the  caricature  of  Hogarth, 
the  scorn  of  the  courtier,  the  pride  of  the  ruffling  gallant,  have 
exhausted  themselves  to  ridicule  the  figure  of  the  Fathers  of 
New  England,  and  their  contemporaries  who  sat  in  council  with 
Cromwell  or  marched  to  victory  under  his  banner.  But  these 
scoffers  have  had  their  day.  The  dress  of  the  cavalier  has 
now  been  remitted  to  the  butler  or  the  footman.  The  fashion- 
able lovelocks  ornament  the  head  of  the  fiddler  or  the  buffoon. 
But  the  dress  of  the  Puritan  is  now  the  dress  of  all  gentlemen 
in  Europe.  The  architects  of  our  dwellings  are  studying  the 

secret  of  his  simple  and  noble  architecture.  The  serious  dig- 


48 


laity  of  demeanor  which  marked  the  intercourse  of  Bradford 
and  Brewster  is  a pattern  for  the  imitation  of  any  Ambassador, 
though  he  represent  seventy  million  freemen  at  whatever  court, 
or  before ' whatever  Sovereign  he  may  stand.  Can  you  find 
anywhere  a finer  type  of  a noble  and  accomplished  gentleman 
than  William  Bradford?  You  may  search  Europe  for  his  peer. 
Into  what  stately  eloquence  he  rises  when  he  speaks  of  the 
higher  things  of  the  spirit,  and  the  grave  concerns  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. What  an  accomplished  scholar  he  was.  Look  at 
his  handwriting,  a matter  by  which  you  can  oftimes  discern  the 
gentleman  as  you  can  in  the  step,  or  tone  of  the  voice,  or 
carriage  of  the  person,  or  glance  of  the  eye.  When  Bradford, 
and  Brewster,  and  Carver,  and  Robinson,  and  Miles  Standish, 
and  Richard  Warren,  and  Edward  Winslow,  and  Samuel  Fuller, 
were  taking  council  together  in  Leyden,  they  could  have  set  a 
pattern  of  stately  dignity  to  any  society  on  earth.  Brewster 
had  a library  of  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  volumes.  His 
principal  estate  consisted  of  sixty-four  volumes  in  the  learned 
languages.  What  noble  and  lofty  and  exquisite  sentences  are 
found  in  the  writings  of  Robinson.  The  passage  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  the  little  exiled  flock  from  whom  he  was  separated, — 
“In  a battle  it  is  not  looked  for  but  that  divers  should  die,” 
is  in  the  highest  strain  of  Paul.  “God  forbid  that  I should 
need  to  exhort  you  to  peace,  which  is  the  bond  of  perfection, 

and  by  which  all  good  is  tied  together,  and  without  which  it  is 

scattered.  Have  peace  unto  God  first,  by  faith  in  his  promise 
good  conscience  kept  in  all  things,  and  oft  renewed  by  repent- 
ance ; and  so  one  with  another  for  His  sake  who  is,  though 
three,  one  ; and  for  Christ’s  sake,  who  is  one,  and  as  you  are 

called  by  one  spirit  to  one  hope.”  Is  not  this  the  very  spirit 

of  John  the  Beloved  Disciple?  Is  not  this  the  very  spirit  of 


Grace,  Mercy  and  Peace?  I do  not  find  the  battle  and  the 
march  and  the  gaudium  certaminis  anywhere  in  our  Pilgrim. 
His  longing  was  ever  for  peace. 

Leyden  street  in  Plymouth,  with  its  cluster  of  seven  humble 
dwellings,  witnessed  a high  behavior  to  which  there  could  not 
be  found  a parallel  in  any  court  in  Europe.  There  was  no 
employment  so  homely  or  so  menial  that  it  could  debase  the 
simple  dignity  of  these  men,  a dignity  born  of  daily  spiritual 
communion  with  heavenly  contemplations,  of  constant  medita- 
ting on  the  things  which  concern  eternal  life,  and  the  things 
which  concern  the  foundation  of  empire.  It  was  like  an 
encampment  of  a company  of  crusaders  on  their  journey  to 
the  Holy  City,  where  every  companion  was  a prince  or  a 
noble.  DeRassiere  describes  the  little  procession  as  it 
marched  to  worship  God  on  Sunday  morning  summoned  by  the 
beat  of  the  drum.  Was  there  ever  a statelier  ceremonial  at  an 
emperor’s  coronation?  There  can  be  no  better  touchstone  of 
the  genuineness  and  sincerity  of  a lofty  religious  faith  than  its 
creation  of  a lofty  behavior,  such  as  comports  with  daily  med- 
itation and  conversation  on  celestial  and  eternal  interests. 

This  is  the  one  story  to  which  for  us,  or  for  our  children, 
nothing  in  human  annals  may  be  cited  for  parallel  or  compari- 
son, save  the  story  of  Bethlehem.  There  is  none  other  told 
in  Heaven  or  among  men  like  the  story  of  the  Pilgrim.  Upon 
this  rock  is  founded  our  house.  Let  the  rains  descend,  and 
the  floods  come,  and  the  winds  blow  and  beat  upon  that  house, 
it  shall  not  fall.  The  saying  of  our  prophet — our  Daniel — is 
fulfilled.  The  sons  of  the  Pilgrim  have  crossed  the  Missis- 
sippi and  possess  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  The  tree  our 
Fathers  set  covered  at  first  a little  space  by  the  seaside.  It 
has  planted  its  banyan  branches  in  the  ground.  It  has  spread 
4 


50 


along  the  lakes.  It  has  girdled  the  Gulf.  It  has  spanned  the 
Mississippi.  It  has  covered  the  prairie  and  the  plain.  The 
sweep  of  its  lofty  arches  rises  over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
the  Cascades,  and  the  Nevadas.  Its  hardy  growth  shelters  the 
frozen  region  of  the  far  Northwest.  Its  boughs  hang  over  the 
Pacific.  And  in  good  time — in  good  time — it  will  send  its 
roots  beneath  the  waves  and  receive  under  its  vast  canopy  the 
islands  of  the  sea. 

“Branching  so  broad  and  long,  that  in  the  ground 
The  bended  twigs  take  root,  and  daughters  grow 
About  the  mother  tree,  a pillared  shade 
High  overarched,  and  echoing  walks  bet  ween.’ 7 

Wherever  the  son  of  the  Pilgrim  goes,  he  will  carry  with  him 
what  the  Pilgrim  brought  from  Leyden  — the  love  of  liberty, 
reverence  for  law,  trust  in  God  — a living  God  — belief  in  a 
personal  immortality,  the  voice  of  conscience  in  the  soul,  a 
heart  open  to  the  new  truth  which  ever  breaketh  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Word.  His  inherited  instinct  for  the  building  of 
States  will  be  as  sure  as  that  of  the  bee  for  building  her  cell 
or  the  eagle  his  nest. 

The  gentle  spirit  of  Bradford,  the  stern  courage  of  Standish,. 
the  lofty  faith  of  Brewster,  mellowed  and  broadened  as  the 
centuries  come  and  go,  shall  be  his.  It  may  be  that  the  Power 
that  was  with  his  Fathers  will  not  doom  him  to  the  severe 
discipline  and  the  stern  trial  that  was  theirs.  We  may  hope 
for  him  the  blessings  of  existence  to  which  Webster  summoned 
him — of  “life  in  pleasant  lands,  in  verdant  fields,  and  under 
healthful  skies.  He  may  hope  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  great 
inheritance  we  transmit  to  him,  the  blessings  of  good  govern- 
ment and  religious  liberty,  the  treasures  of  science,  the  delights 
of  learning,  the  transcendent  sweets  of  domestic  life,”  shared 


51 


with  kindred  and  parents  and  children.  But  he  must  enjoy 
and  hold  these  things  as  ready  to  part  with  them  at  the 
summons  of  Him  who  bestowed  them.  They  are  never  to  be 
bought  or  to  be  held  at  the  sacrifice  of  freedom  of  truth,  or 
of  duty. 

Whatever  temptation  come  to  him,  let  the  memory  of  the 
men  who  landed  here  rise  in  his  soul,  to  be  his  shield  and  safety. 

Wherever  in  coming  centuries  men  govern  themselves  in 
freedom,  let  him  still  be  found  foremost,  taking  the  honest  and 
the  brave  part. 

If  cowardice  dissuade  him  from  the  peril  and  sacrifice,  with- 
out which  nothing  can  be  gained  in  the  great  crises  of  Na- 
tional life,  let  him  answer : I am  of  the  blood  of  them  who 
crossed  the  ocean  in  the  Mayflower  and  encountered  the  wil- 
derness and  the  savage  in  the  winter  of  1620. 

If  luxury  and  ease  come  with  their  seductive  whisper,  he 
will  reply  : I am  descended  from  the  little  company  of  whom 
more  than  half  died  before  spring,  and  of  whom  none  went 
back  to  England. 

Bigotry  and  superstition  will  in  vain  utter  their  hoarse  and 
discordant  counsel  to  him  who  is  of  God’s  free  people. 

Let  him  never  forget  his  ancestry. 

In  his  halls  is  hung 

Armory  of  the  invincible  Knights  of  old. 

In  everything  he  is  sprung 

Of  earth’s  first  blood,  hath  titles  manifold. 

If  the  hearts  of  other  men  fail  them,  he  will  still  turn  for 
inspiration  to  the  rock  where  Alden  landed,  to  the  walls 
where  Brewster  preached,  to  the  hill  where  Bradford  lies 
buried. 


52 


Let  this  day  forevermore  be  devoted  to  filial  affection.  Let 
it  be  given  to  the  utterance  of  children’s  love.  The  beautiful 
shadows  of  the  Pilgrim  Father  and  the  Pilgrim  Mother  hover 
over  us  now.  In  that  spiritual  presence  it  cannot  be  that  our 
hearts  shall  be  cold  or  that  our  thoughts  should  be  unworthy 
of  our  high  lineage.  Let  every  return  of  the  Pilgrim  anniver- 
sary witness  a new  consecration  of  his  children  to  the  Pil- 
grim’s cause  in  the  Pilgrim’s  spirit.  If  it  shall  be  our  fortune 
to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  civilization,  of  order,  of  refinement, 
of  happy  homes,  of  wealth,  of  letters,  of  art,  of  the  transcen- 
dent sweets  of  domestic  life,  of  safety,  of  good  fame,  of 
honor,  let  us  enjoy  them,  grateful  to  the  God  who  has  given 
them  and  to  the  ancestors  whom  he  vouchsafed  to  make  His 
instruments  to  win  them.  Not  unto  us ; not  unto  us,  but  unto 
Him  and  to  them  be  the  praise.  But  if  we  are  called  on  in  His 
Providence  to  give  up  all  these,  let  us  remember  that  it  is  not 
for  these  things  that  human  life  on  this  earth  is  given.  Let 
us  still  remember  the  Pilgrim’s  life  and  the  Pilgrim’s  lesson. 
Above  all,  Liberty ! Above  all,  Faith  ! Above  all,  Duty ! 

Ode. 

“The  Pilgrim  Fathers,  Where  are  They?”  Written  by  Rev. 
John  Pierpont  for  the  celebration  in  1824 ; sung  by  the 
Plymouth  Musical  Club. 

Benediction. 

By  Rev.  Ernest  W.  Shurtleff,  Pastor  of  the  Church  of  the 

Pilgrimage. 


MYRON  W.  WHITNEY. 


THE  DINNER. 


Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  public  exercises  in  the 
Armory,  the  invited  guests,  with  the  Trustees  and  Offi- 
cers of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  the  Chief  Marshal  and  his 
Aids,  and  the  Committees  in  charge  of  the  celebra- 
tion, dined  together  at  the  Samoset  House.  The 
tables  were  spread  in  the  large  dining-room  of  the 
hotel.  Arrangements  had  been  made  for  one  hundred 
persons,  and  every  seat  was  occupied. 

Rev.  E.  H.  Capen,  D.  D.,  President  of  Tufts’  College, 
asked  the  blessing. 

Before  the  after-dinner  speaking  began,  Senator  Hoar 
was  obliged  to  leave  in  order  to  take  a train,  and,  as 
he  rose  to  go,  the  President  of  the  Society  asked  the 
gentlemen  present  to  rise  and  join  in  the  following 
toast,  to  which  Mr.  Hoar  briefly  responded  : 

The  President  : — Mr.  Hoar  is  obliged  to  retire  now 
in  order  to  take  the  3:30  train,  and,  before  he  goes,  I 
desire  to  express  to  him  jour  grateful  acknowledgments  for 
the  great  oration  which  he  has  delivered  this  morning,  and 
to  ask  you  to  join  in  the  toast:  “Our  best  wishes  for 
health  and  a long  life  of  usefulness  and  honor  to  Senator 
Hoar.” 

The  literary  exercises  began  about  half-past  three 
o’clock,  and  the  President  spoke  as  follows: 

It  is  a grateful  privilege  to  extend  to  you  all  a cordial 
greeting,  and,  in  behalf  of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  to  welcome 
to  Plymouth  the  orator  and  the  poet  of  the  day,  who  have  con- 


54 


tributed  so  much  to  make  the  occasion  ever  memorable, 
and  the  invited  guests,  who,  by  their  presence,  have  lent 
an  added  dignity  and  importance  to  the  exercises  of  the 
day. 

Three  quarters  of  a century  ago  the  Pilgrim  Society  was 
organized  by  certain  citizens  of  Plymouth  for  the  purpose, 
as  expressed  in  its  charter,  of  erecting  a monument  to  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  the  virtues,  the  enterprise,  and  un- 
paralleled sufferings  of  their  ancestors  who  first  settled  in 
that  ancient  town,  and  for  the  erection  of  a building  for  its 
meetings.  The  desire  and  ambition  of  its  founders  has  been 
realized,  and  even  more.  Upon  the  hill  above  us  stands  the 
National  Monument  to  the  Forefathers,  erected  by  the  gen- 
erous contributions  of  a grateful  people  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  its  summit  crowned  with  the  majestic  figure 
of  Faith,  mute,  yet  eloquent  of  the  lofty  spirit  which  in- 
spired the  Pilgrims,  and  its  four  corners  marked  with  the 
statues  of  Freedom  and  Education,  Morality  and  Law,  typi- 
fying and  illustrating  those  cardinal  principles  upon  which 
rested  the  infant  colony,  and  upon  which  aloue  the  great 
states  and  greater  nation  which  it  founded  can  securely  rest. 
In  its  hall,  no  longer  devoted  to  the  meetings  of  the  So- 
ciety only,  are  tenderly  preserved  and  carefully  cherished  the 
precious  relics  and  mementoes  of  many  a member  of  the 
Plymouth  company. 

Still  other  opportunities  await  it,  and  other  duties  lie  before 
it.  The  Pilgrim  Society  must  ever  “ keep  their  memory 
green.”  From  time  to  time,  on  these  recurring  anniver- 
saries of  the  departure  and  the  landing,  the  story  of  the 
Pilgrims  will  be  told,  and  their  virtues,  their  enterprise,  and 
heir  unparalleled  sufferings  be  perpetuated.  Here  have  come 


55 


the  statesman  and  historian,  Webster  and  Everett,  Winthrop 
and  Hoar  — last  only  in  order  of  time  — to  tell,  with  match- 
less eloquence,  the  Pilgrim  story.  Here,  too,  have  come  the 
poets,  Pierpoint  and  Holmes,  O’Reilley  and  Stoddard, 
to  pay  to  the  memory  of  the  Pilgrims  the  graceful 
tribute  of  their  glowing  verse.  To  what  place  could 
we  summon  more  fitly  than  here  the  poet  and  the  historian? 
For  here,  in  spite  of  the  changes  which  the  years  have 
brought,  above  the  rumble  of  the  witches’  train  in  its 
streets,  and  the  hum  of  busy  machinery  in  its  factories,  still 
speak  the  voices  of  the  past.  Here  ever  lingers  a peculiar 
interest  and  an  indescribable  charm.  Sometimes  in  the  stillness 
of  a summer’s  noon,  sometimes  beneath  the  cold  moonlight 
of  a silent  December  night  we  seem  to  hear  the  echoes  of 
bygone  years.  To  citizen  and  visitor,  alike  mindful  of  its 
past,  his  ear  attuned  to  its  messages,  his  mind  impressed 
with  these  associations,  as  he  passes  down  the  streets  which 
the  Pilgrim  feet  once  pressed,  beneath  the  shade  of  stately 
trees  to  each  familiar  spot  there  seems  to  come  the  cries 
of  the  children,  the  sound  of  the  weeping  of  the  women, 
the  echoes  of  the  prayers  of  the  fathers,  and,  rising  above 
them  all,  the  triumphant  strain  of  praise  and  thanksgiving, 
as  through  doubt  and  fear  the  Pilgrim  clearly  saw  that  His 
arm,  which  so  smote  and  afflicted  them,  was  also  raised  to 
sustain  and  preserve. 

As  you  gathered  to-day  in  the  great  building  which  stands 
upon  the  lot,  and  near  the  site,  where  probably  once  stood 
the  home  of  William  Brewster,  behind  it  the  town  brook 
flowing  to  the  sea,  still  fed  by  the  sweet  springs  of  fresh 
running  water  which  gladdened  the  hearts  of  the  Pilgrims, 
fronting  upon  the  ancient  street  leading  from  their  hill  of 


56 


graves  to  the  sea,  perchance  in  imagination  you  saw  the  de- 
vout and  benignant  presence  of  the  great  elder ; the  martial 
figure  of  Standish ; the  wise  and  gracious  bearing  of  Brad- 
ford, the  historian  and  governor ; the  courtly  form  of  Wins- 
low, whose  face  alone  of  the  Pilgrim  company  is  preserved 
to  us  in  the  portrait  which  hangs  in  the  hall ; the  sturdy 
manhood  of  Howland,  of  Allerton  and  Hopkins,  and  the 
rest,  whose  names,  wreathed  in  living  green,  were  upon  its 
walls.  You  saw  again  the  faces  of  the  Pilgrims,  now 
thoughtful  with  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of  the  presentr 
now  for  a moment  pale  in  the  presence  of  the  difficulties 
which  confront  and  the  dangers  which  surround  them,  now 
aglow  with  the  light  and  promise  of  the  coming  years.  Are 
not  among  the  uses  of  a celebration  like  this  that  the 
young  men  shall  see  visions  and  the  old  men  dream 
dreams.  From  the  Rock  of  Plymouth,  across  river  and 
. prairie,  and  beyond  the  mountains,  the  lesson  and  the  story 
of  the  21st  of  December  will  ever  go.  It  will  be  told  in 
prosperous  cities ; it  will  be  repeated  in  simple  homes  upon 
quiet  hillsides.  In  these  happy  days  of  peace  and  prosperity,, 
as  well  as  in  times  of  war  and  adversity,  it  is  well  to  recall 
the  story  of  the  Pilgrim’s  life  and  labors,  of  his  toils  and  his 
triumphs,  of  his  sufferings  and  his  virtues,  of  the  independ- 
ence of  thought  and  toleration  of  expression  which  character- 
ized him  ; of  the  consummate  wisdom  and  sagacity  which  drew 
the  compact  and  framed  the  early  laws  so  admirably  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  the  infant  colony  ; and,  above  all,  of  the  sub- 
lime faith  which  sustained  him  in  every  peril  and  lifted  him 
above  every  doubt,  and  alone  could  make  him  free.  And 
where,  other  than  here,  shall  that  story  be  cold? 


57 


I trust,  gentlemen,  that  the  happy  remembrance  of  this  day 
will  long  remain  with  yon,  and  that  its  recollections  will  ever 
be  gratefully  cherished.  There  is  one  monument  of  the  Pil- 
grims, more  enduring  than  granite  or  bronze,  which  time  can 
never  efface.  It  lies  in  the  hearts  of  a grateful  people. 
That  monument  is  the  history  and  the  traditions,  the  memories 
and  the  associations  which  cluster  about  the  Rock  and  linger 
always  around  the  ancient  Town  of  Plymouth. 

Yea,  when  the  flowing  bulkwarks, 

Which  guard  this  holy  strand, 

Are  sunk  beneath  the  trampling  surge 
In  beds  of  sparkling  sand, 

When  in  the  waste  of  waters 
Our  hoary  rock  shall  stand, 

Be  this  its  latest  legend: 

Here  was  the  Pilgrims’  land. 

The  President  then  announced  the  following  toast : 

The  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  It  now  unites  the 
Colony  of  Plymouth  and  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
May  it  long  maintain,  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  those  great 
principles  common  to  both — Freedom  and  Education,  Morality 
and  Law  ! 

I have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  the  Lieutenant  Governor,- 
Hon.  Roger  Wolcott,  to  respond. 

Mr.  Wolcott  spoke  as  follows  : 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Pilgrim  Society: 

It  is  with  entire  sincerity  that  I say,  in  the  absence  of  His 
Excellency  the  Governor,  that  I esteem  it  a peculiar  privilege 
that  it  has  fallen  to  my  lot  to  represent  the  Commonwealth 
upon  this  occasion. 


58 


It  is  an  interesting  thought  that  on  this  day  the  sons  of 
New  England  have  come  together  in  all  the  great  cities  of  our 
broad  land  — those  that  look  forth  upon  the  Atlantic,  those 
that  guard  the  Great  Lakes  and* the  valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  even  where  California  bathes  her  feet  in  the  waters  of  the 
Pacific  — to  kindle  anew  memories  of  their  distant  home,  and 
to  listen  once  more  to  the  tale  which  has  made  the  name  of 
Plymouth  one  of  the  words  most  deeply  freighted  with  tender 
and  loftly  significance  in  our  language.  To  all  of  these  meet- 
ings— kindred  in  thought  and  purpose  with  our  own  — we  send 
our  word  of  greeting  to-day,  but  we  feel  that  we  are  favored 
beyond  them,  for  it  is  our  good  fortune  alone  to  stand  beneath 
the  brooding  genius  of  the  spot.  Here  landed,  and  here  labor- 
ed and  prayed  those  men  and  women  whose  high  purpose  and 
heroic  achievement  we  to-day  commemorate  ; on  yonder  hillside 
they  sleep,  overlooking  the  rude  rock,  which  by  the  .miracle  of 
their  touch  has  become  one  of  the  symbols  that  for  all  time 
have  power  to  thrill  the  mind  and  heart  of  countless  millions. 

Plymouth  is  indeed  fortunate  in  possessing  these  sacred  me- 
morials of  a great  past.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to  attend 
many  interesting  memorial  services  held  to  commemorate  the 
one-hundredth,  or  two-hundredth  or  two-hundred  and  fiftieth 
anniverary  of  the  founding  of  some  town  or  institution ; but 
to-day,  for  the  first  time  on  this  continent,  at  least  so  far  as 
regards  its  English  occupancy,  we  meet  to  celebrate  an  event 
which  took  place  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  ago.  We 
have  thus  to-day  entered  on  a new  era ; we  have  taken  one 
step  forward  in  our  age  as  a people.  I congratulate  your  So- 
ciety on  the  complete  success  of  the  day’s  exercises.  The 
oration  and  poem,  to  which  we  have  this  morning  listened,  will 
take  their  place  in  equal  companionship  with  the  memorable 

% 


59 


addresses  which  have  marked  the  completion  of  other  quarters 
of  a century  in  the  history  of  your  favored  town. 

If  we  look  back  to  the  settlement  of  Plymouth,  and  allow 
the  imagination  to  conjure  up  some  conception  of  what  those 
men  and  women  endured,  our  first  thought  is  one  of  profound 
pathos.  As  we  trace  the  perils  of  that  voyage,  the  hardships 
of  that  winter,  when  out  of  forty-eight  adult  men  twenty-eight 
died,  and  were  secretly  buried  lest  the  knowledge  of  the  ter- 
rible reduction  in  their  numbers  might  invite  attack  by  the 
surrounding  Indians,  the  feeling  uppermost  in  our  heart  is  that 
of  pity.  How  could  women  and  children  endure  that  which 
overcame  the  strength  of  manhood?  And  yet  a truer  view 
would  remind  us  that  this  feeling  of  pity  should  be  hushed  in 
the  swelling  paean  of  victory.  Our  final  judgment  must  regard 
not  what  they  endured,  but  what  they  achieved.  And  so  we 
may  say  of  them  what  was  said  of  Leonidas  and  his  band  of 
heroes  : 

“ Of  those  who  at  Thermopylae  were  slain, 

Glorious  the  doom,  and  beautiful  the  lot; 

Their  tomb  an  altar!  Men  from  tears  refrain, 

Honor  and  praise,  but  mourn  them  not.” 

It  is  then  with  a thrilling  sense  of  admiration  that  well-nigh 
passes  into  envy,  that  we  recall  the  lives  and  deaths  of  those 
men  and  women. 

They  were  true  idealists.  “ Theie  was  never  colony  save 
this,”  says  Lowell,  u that  went  forth  not  to  seek  gold  but 
God.”  They  were  not  crowded  out  from  the  mother-country 
by  an  over-teeming  population,  they  were  not  led  by  thirst  of 
gold,  by  lust  of  conquest,  or  the  mere  hardihood  of  adventure 
Not  from  such  ignoble  source  came  the  impulse  that  drove 


60 


them  across  that  wintry  sea.  Their  uplifted  eyes  had  caught 
the  vision  of  a free  state,  a free  church  and  a free  school, 
and  where  that  vision  led,  they  followed.  With  such  guidance 
how  could  they  falter  or  turn  back?  They  entered  upon  their 
great  enterprise  not  from  sudden  impulse  or  swayed  by  passing 
emotion,  but  after  long  and  sober  deliberation  ; and,  having  so 
embarked,  nothing  but  annihilation  could  defeat  their  purpose. 
The  Pilgrims  were  idealists,  but  not  emotionalists.  That  calm 
deliberation  of  thought  which  was  their’s  remains  with  their 
descendants  to-day. 

That  Commonwealth  is  happy  that  has  within  its  borders 
Plymouth  Rock,  a symbol  of  high,  reasoning  idealism,  a sym- 
bol of  undaunted  heroism,  a symbol  of  willing  self-sacrifice.  I 
would  that  Massachusetts  might,  in  the  person  of  all  its  citi- 
zens, make  humble  pilgrimage  to  Plymouth,  here  to  touch  its 
lips  to  the  pure  flame  of  heroism  which  has  never  been  allow- 
ed to  die  out  in  all  these  years. 

In  one  of  the  few  great  novels  of  the  world,  the  genius  of 
George  Eliot  has  drawn  a character  the  very  antithesis  of  that 
of  the  Pilgrim.  You  perhaps  recall  the  beautiful  and  facile 
Greek  youth,  Tito  Melema,  whose  charm  and  grace  won  easily 
the  love  of  women  and  the  favor  of  most  men,  whose  talents 
and  attainments  brought  fortune  and  high  station  within  his 
grasp,  but  who,  lacking  some  vigor  of  moral  fibre,  did  always 
the  thing  that  seemed  easiest  rather  than  the  thing  that  was 
right ; and  so  the  life  that  had  opened  with  so  fair  a dawn 
went  down  in  the  darkness  of  betrayal  of  friend,  in  faithless- 
ness to  love,  in  falsehood,  dishonor  and  ignoble  death. 

The  character  of  the  Pilgrim  was  inspired  by  a spirit  the 
exact  opposite  of  this.  Not  love  of  ease,  nor  the  instinctive 
shrinking  from  hardship  and  toil,  but  stern  determination  to 


61 


attain  an  ideal  worth  striving  for  — such  was  its  controlling 
motive  and  aim.  On  this  spirit  rests  the  foundation  of  the 
government  of  this  Commonwealth,  and  it  is  still  living  and 
active  among  her  citizens  after  this  lapse  of  two  and  three- 
quarters  centuries.  It  is  because  the  Commonwealth  values 
this  spirit  as  well-nigh  the  most  precious  characteristic  of  her 
citizenship,  and  because  she  finds  in  Plymouth  Rock  the  true 
symbol  of  its  high  idealism,  that  she  brings  you  to-day  the 
fullest  expression  of  her  reverential  and  grateful  love  of  those 
men  and  women  whose  painful  steps  have  made  sacred  for  all 
time  the  soil  of  your  historic  town. 

The  President:  — Above  the  flag  of  the  Old  Colony;  above 
even  the  white  flag  of  Massachusetts  float  the  stars  and  stripes, 
the  emblem  of  national  supremacy,  — the  flag  of  the  American 
Union.  I give  you  as  the  next  toast : The  United  States 
whose  corner-stone  is  the  Rock  of  Plymouth. 

I have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  its  representative,  the 
Collector  of  the  Port  of  Boston,  Hon.  Winslow  Warren. 

Mr.  Warren  said  : 

It  is  always  pleasant  for  a Plymouth  born  man  to  return  to 
the  home  of  his  forefathers  and  to  enjoy  eloquent  and  poetic 
tributes  to  their  memory  such  as  we  have  listened  to  to-day.  The 
grandeur  and  completeness  of  their  work  needs  no  stronger 
testimony  than  is  offered  by  the  fact  that  though  it  has  been 
told  in  the  burning  words  of  Webster  and  Everett  and  Choate 
and  Winthrop,  it  is  still  new  and  still  fascinates  from  the  lips 
of  worthy  successors.  Its  force  is  in  the  simple  majesty  of 
the  lives  of  these  few  plain  men  who,  all  unconscious  of  the 
magnitude  of  their  own  undertaking,  were  great  because  they 
lived  up  to  high  ideals.  They  had  no  preconceived  theories  of 


62 


government,  they  were  not  at  all  concerned  to  prove  the  cor- 
rectness of  their  own  principles,  but  went  straight  ahead  doing 
what  they  found  before  them  simply,  plainly,  and  steadfastly, 
trusting  to  God  for  results,  and  without  care  or  concern  for 
the  praise  or  blame  of  men.  They  were  in  dead  earnest  be- 
cause they  believed  in  the  divine  character  of  their  mission. 
The  founding  of  an  empire  was  not  within  their  ken,  and  we 
seek  in  vain  for  any  evidence  that  they  attached  special  im- 
portance to  their  work  in  its  influence  upon  the  future. 

There  were  educated  men  among  them,  like  Bradford  and 
Brewster  and  Winslow,  though  for  the  most  part  they  were 
plain  practical  men  of  humble  station  — but  all  had  had  the 
kind  of  education  which  comes  from  the  dire  experience  of 
persecution  and  they  had  withal  the  hard  English  common 
sense  which  has  shown  itself  the  world  over.  If  there  is  one 
characteristic  especially  English,  it  is  a sort  of  quiet  stubbor- 
ness  joined  to  inborn  executive  capacity  which  carried  these 
men  as  it  has  others  through  great  trials  and  enabled  them  ta 
master  problems  which  would  have  confounded  stronger  intel- 
lects. The  Anglo  Saxon  race  is  in  its  nature  a dominant  race,, 
one  which  eyer  grows  stronger  when  combatting  hard  circum- 
stances and  adverse  surroundings.  We  call  it  common  sense, 
but  it  is  the  most  uncommon  thing  in  history,  for  it  involves- 
an  innate  shrewdness  and  natural  worldliness  which  must  be 
born  in  the  men,  for  it  never  can  be  acquired. 

It  matters  very  little  in  this  view  whether  as  Englishmen 
they  transferred  to  this  country  institutions  familiar  to  them  in 
their  own  homes,  or  whether  their  twelve  years  stay  in  Holland 
gave  them  new  ideas  borrowed  from  the  more  liberal  spirit  of 
that  remarkable  country  — either  proposition  may  have  some 
truth  in  it  — but  after  all  what  they  brought  and  planted  here 


63 


was  stamped  with  their  own  clear  impress  and  was  original  and 
enduring  because  the  immortal  spirit  of  the  men  was  in  it. 

It  was  not  England  or  Holland  which  made  the  Plymouth  of 
1620  — it  was  indeed  both  combined,  but  more  important  than 
either  was  the  lofty  untrammelled  hearts  of  determined  men, 
who  sought  here  something  better  than  the  old  world  could 
furnish  and  left  for  later  generations  an  example  of  clear 
thinking  and  resolute  acting. 

As  time  has  moved  on  and  their  story  been  more  critically 
studied,  the  differences  between  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans* 
have  become  more  clearly  recognized  and  the  divergence  is 
largely  in  the  spirit  carried  into  the  respective  enterprises. 
Though  driven  from  their  own  country  by  even’  harsher  per- 
secution than  the  Puritans  ever  experienced,  the  Pilgrims  never 
allowed  the  more  humane  and  gentle  qualities  of  their  nature- 
to  be  wholly  crushed  nor  were  they  wanting  in  a vein  of  un- 
expected romance.  Their  relations  with  the  Indians  bear  full 
witness  to  this  from  the  day  of  their  landing  and  meeting  with 
Samoset  through  all  their  history.  I need  but  recall  that 
famous  Thanksgiving,  in  1621,  when  they  entertained  so  quaint- 
ly and  royally  their  ninety  Indian  guests  — their  long  and 
friendly  intimacy  with  Massasoit,  during  which  Winslow  made 
that  pathetic  and  touching  visit  to  the  sick  King,  full  of  tender 
kindness  and  comfort,  and  the  faithfulness  with  which  their 
treaties  were  observed.  A Plymouth  audience  knows  full  well 
these  stories  and  numerous  other  traditions  of  the  early  days. 
If  there  had  not  been  something  of  the  picturesque,  something 
romantic  in  their  nature  — the  names  of  Miles  Standish  and 
Rose,  his  young  wife  — of  Priscilla  Mullens  — of  the  genial 
Winslow  — the  good  old  Dr.  Fuller  and  the  saintly  Brewster, 


64 


-would  have  been  painted  in  more  sombre  colors  than  history 
has  given  them. 

The  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  had  become  independent  of  the 
English  church  and  they  had  become  independent  also  of  much 
of  its  narrowness  and  harshness  and  intolerance.  It  was  not 
in  Plymouth  that  citizenship  depended  upon  church  membership 
— here  was  the  first  great  step  towards  universal  suffrage  in 
the  right  which  all  freeholders  had  from  the  beginning,  to  take 
part  in  the  management  of  Colony  affairs.  They  doubtless  did 
not  reach  the  modern  limit  of  toleration,  but  they  were  in  ad- 
vance of  their  age,  and  where  they  missed  the  full  fruition, 
’twas  not  so  much  from  narrowness  of  view  or  the  want  of  a 
charitable  spirit  as  the  natural  influence  of  the  dangers  by 
which  so  feeble  a community  was  surrounded.  With  all  their 
shortcomings  which  we  may  freely  admit,  their  administrative 
acts  and  provisions  breathed  yet  a spirit  of  remarkable  freedom 
and  charity,  and  those  parting  words  of  John  Robinson  — the 
most  significant  utterance  of  any  man  of  his  time  — were  the 
key  note  of  their  temper  and  general  policy  so  long  as  they 
remained  a separate  Colony. 

This  quiet,  unheralded  landing  at  Plymouth  — where  in  all 
history  will  you  match  it?  Where,  before  or  since,  have  the 
beginnings  of  a vast  Nation  been  so  unfolded  in  all  their  de- 
tails to  a world’s  gaze  and  yet  so  simple,  so  utterly  plain  and 
of  so  little  seeming  importance  at  the  time?  Less  than  three 
centuries  have  erected  a proud  edifice  of  enlightened  Republic- 
anism upon  the  shoulders  of  these  one  hundred  obscure  men  — 
men  who  dreamed  of  no  worlds  to  conquer  and  who  sought  in 
a wilderness  nothing  but  unmolested  freedom  to  worship  God 
according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience.  Compare 


65 


this  with  the  grand  expeditions  that,  with  high  sounding  pro- 
clamations and  blare  of  trumpets,  have  so  often  set  forth  to 
remodel  continents,  and  returned  in  dismal  failure  and  ruin. 
This  Church  and  State  was  founded  on  a rock  — not  the  rock 
we  venerate,  which  their  mortal  feet  have  trod  — but  the  Rock 
of  Ages  in  which  they  put  their  trust. 

The  lesson  is  for  us,  their  descendants,  to  draw,  if  we  wilj‘ 
and  it  is  one  that  this  Nation,  great  and  powerful  as  it  is, 
boastful  of  its  strength  as  it  is,  may  well  take  to  heart  — that 
real  success  and  permanence  is  in  the  character  of  its  people 
and  how  far  in  all  its  dealings,  whether  in  matters  of  foreign 
policy  or  national  finance  or  other  questions,  it  may  deal  justly 
and  righteously  and  discreetly  in  the  same  spirit  with  which 
our  Pilgrim  Fathers  met  those  questions  which  Providence  com- 
pelled them  to  settle  here  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

The  President: — I regret  that  the  infirmities  of  the  poet 
of  the  day  compelled  him  to  decline  our  urgent  invitation  to 
be  present  at  this  table.  May  I send  him  in  your  name  our 
grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  debt  we  owe  him  ; our  hearty 
assurances  of  respect  and  esteem ; we  wish  him  now,  and  al- 
ways, health,  and  happiness,  and  peace. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  we  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
from  a citizen  of  the  great  West.  He  might  fitly  speak 
for  those 

“ Whose  fathers  crossed  the  prairies 
As  of  old  your  fathers  crossed  the  sea, 

To  make  the  West,  as  they  the  East, 

The  homestead  of  the  free.” 

He  was,  however,  for  many  years  the  United  States  Minis- 
ter to  the  Netherlands,  and  there  reverently  traced  the  foot- 

5 


66 


steps  of  the  Pilgrims  in  Holland.  I have  the  honor  of  intro- 
ducing Hon.  Samuel  R.  Thayer  of  Minnesota. 

Mr.  Thayer  said : 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Pilgrim  Socieiy : 

I am  deeply  thankful  to  the  Pilgrim  Society  for  the  invita- 
tion which  brings  me  to  this  table. 

The  lateness  of  the  season,  to  say  nothing  of  other  unfav- 
oring conditions,  would  have  rendered  a journey  of  2,000  miles 
at  this  time  impracticable,  if  not  impossible,  were  it  not  that 
I have  long  been  possessed  with  an  earnest  desire  to  bring 
myself  into  closer  relationship  with  the  men  who  are  known  to 
be  the  best  representatives  of  Puritan  thought  and  feeling  in 
America. 

True,  it  is,  we  find  manifestations  of  this  sentiment  in  the 
institutions  and  laws  of  other  Commonwealths,  but  it  is  in 
New  England  alone,  and  chiefly  in  Massachusetts,  that  we  look 
for  the  fairest  fruitage  of  those  great  ideas  which  dominate 
the  minds  of  the  men  who  first  planted  the  seeds  of  liberty  on 
American  soil. 

The  topics  which  the  occasion  suggests  have  been  so  fully 
and  ably  treated  in  the  noble  discourse  to  which  we  have 
listened,  and  which  will  ever  remain  a cherished  memory  in  my 
life,  as  to  admit  of  no  further  elaboration.  I may,  however, 
be  indulged  in  saying  that  my  own  reflections,  doubtless  stimu- 
lated by  generations  of  Puritan  ancestry,  have  led  me  to  ques- 
tion the  integrity  of  any  movement  having  for  its  professed 
object  the  renovation  of  society,  which  does  not  derive  its  in- 
spiration directly  or  indirectly  from  Plymouth  Rock. 

Influenced  somewhat  by  this  sentiment  it  was  my  great 
privilege  while  representing  the  government  at  the  court  of  the 


67 


Netherlands  to  gather  up  such  memorials  of  the  Pilgrims  as  I 
could  find  in  that  country.  It  is  unnecessary  that  I should  in- 
form this  assemblage  that  those  memorials  are  exceedingly 
rare.  Nevertheless  it  was  a pleasure  to  show  that,  though 
the  Pilgrims  and  their  descendants  have  long  since  vanished, 
their  memories  are  still  cherished  in  the  only  country  in  Eu- 
rope whose  very  soil  has  been  for  centuries  dedicated  to  civil 
and  religious  liberty. 

Soon  after  the  dedication  of  yonder  memorial,  I addressed  a 
communication  to  the  Department  of  State,  in  which,  after 
briefly  reciting  the  debt  we  owed  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Dutch  Republic  for  the  aid  and  encouragement  which  they 
gave  the  Pilgrims  during  their  twelve  years’  sojourn  in  Hol- 
land, without  which  their  organization  could  never  have  been 
perfected,  I ventured  to  suggest  the  propriety  of  putting  forth 
an  effort  for  the  erection  of  a memorial  at  Delfthaven,  which 
should  be  a sort  of  answering  monument  to  the  one  at 
Plymouth,  commemorative  of  the  virtues  of  both  people,  and 
as  a means  of  bringing  into  closer  unity  two  nations  in  whom 
the  love  of  liberty  is  a common  inheritance. 

The  suggestion  met  the  favor  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
who  at  once  referred  the  subject  to  the  Governor  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, the  Pilgrim  Society,  and  various  New  England  so- 
cieties throughout  the  country,  all  of  whom  approved  the  pro- 
ject by  resolution,  several  of  them  appointing  committees  to 
raise  means  for  this  purpose.  Meanwhile,  the  government  of 
the  Netherlands,  through  its  Prime  Minister,  expressed  its  cor- 
dial approval  of  the  scheme,  and  promised  its  utmost  support 
in  aid  of  its  execution. 

I shall  not  occupy  your  time  at  length  in  pointing  out  rea- 
sons why  this  memorial  should  be  erected.  It  is  sufficient,  for 


68 


the  present,  to  say  that  it  is  still  a matter  of  consideration. 
Monuments  grow  slowly,  and  the  Delfthaven  memorial  is  no 
exception  to  this  rule.  Whether  it  will  be  built  in  the  life- 
time of  any  members  of  this  company  is  purely  a matter  of 
speculation.  That  it  ultimately  will  be  built  I firmly  believe, 
for  in  this  way  only  can  we  adequately  express  our  devotion 
to  that  principle  in  our  national  life  which  has  been  aptly  de- 
scribed as  the  greatest  political  and  moral  force  of  modern 
times. 

A monument  of  this  character,  located  in  a foreign  land, 
would  be  an  object  lesson  for  all  time,  the  influence  of  which 
can  only  be  measured  by  the  duration  of  the  Republic  itself. 

The  President  then  said : 

Our  acknowledgements  are  due  not  only  to  the  great  orator 
and  the  poet,  but  also  to  the  great  singer.  I ask  you  to  rise 
and  join  with  me  in  the  toast : Health  and  prosperity  to 
Mr.  Myron  W.  Whitney. 

Mr.  Whitney  in  response,  sang  finely  The  Three 
Fishers. 

The  President  then  read  the  following  letter : 

Library  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society, 

Portland,  Me.,  Dec.  19th,  1895. 

To  the  Pilgrim  Society: 

The  Pilgrim  Society  of  Plymouth,  Mass.,  celebrates  on 
Saturday,  Dec.  21st,  1895,  the  two  hundred  and  seventy-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  Organized  to 
commemorate  the  landing,  and  to  venerate  the  memory  of  the 
intrepid  men  who  first  set  foot  on  Plymouth  Rock,  the  Pil- 
grim Society,  for  three-quarters  of  a century,  has  honored 
itself,  as  well  as  the  Forefathers,  by  the  high  character  of 
its  public  celebrations,  and  by  its  unwearied  efforts  to  cul- 


69 


tivate  and  perpetuate  the  Pilgrim  spirit.  On  the  eve  of 
this  added  commemorative  occasion,  the  Maine  Historical  So- 
ciety, holding  in  everlasting  honor  the  stalwart  virtues  and 
heroic  deeds  of  the  Pilgrims,  sends  its  greetings  to  the 
Pilgrim  Society  with  the  assurance  of  its  fellowship  in 
maintaining  and  extending  the  principles  which  brought  the 
Pilgrims  to  these  New  England  shores. 

JAMES  P.  BAXTER, 

President  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society. 

Dr.  Burrage  was  delegated  to  bear  these  resolutions  to 
the  Pilgrim  Society  and  deliver  them  in  behalf  of  the 
Maine  Historical  Society. 

The  President  : — The  Essex  Institute  of  Salem  responds 
to  our  invitation,  not  by  letter,  but  by  its  representative  in 
person.  That  Institute  has  done  a great  service  in  preserv- 
ing the  history  and  traditions  of  the  Puritan  founders  of  Sa- 
lem ; and  I have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  its  rep- 
resentative, Hon.  Robert  S.  Rantoul. 

In  response  to  an  invitation  extended  by  the  Pilgrim 
Society  to  the  Essex  Institute,  to  take  part  in  the  275th 
anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth, 
Vice-President  Rantoul  and  Mr.  Francis  H.  Lee  were 
selected  as  delegates  to  represent  this  Society. 

On  being  called  upon  to  respond  for  the  Institute,  Mr. 
Rantoul  spoke  substantially  as  follows  : — 

Let  me  thank  you,  Sir,  that  in  the  presence  of  this  array  of 
older  bodies,  you  have  not  omitted  to  extend  a hand  to  the 
Essex  Institute.  We  are  a young  Society, — painfully  young  — 
much  younger  than  you,  — not  yet  counting  our  first  half  cen- 
tury of  life, — but  we  are  vigorous  and  sprightly  and  active 


70 


and  growing.  We  are  doing  good  work  and,  like  all  promising 
children,  we  like  to  be  noticed. 

One  may  well  stand  abashed,  Mr.  President,  in  the  presence 
of  such  a scene  as  this.  When  I recall  the  mighty  voices  to 
which  this  spot  has  echoed  — for  what  great  orator  has  our' 
continent  produced  who  has  not,  first  or  last,  planted  his  feet 
and  lifted  up  his  voice  on  Plymouth  Rock,  — who  has  not 
found  here,  first  or  last,  the  Mecca  , of  his  ambition, — the 
shrine  of  his  patriotic  and  ancestral  devotions,  — when  I listen, 
amidst  the  rolling  of  these  waters,  for  one  more  trumpet  tone 
from  that  matchless  organ  that  is  now  silent  but  not  forgotten 
in  the  wave-washed  tomb  at  Marshfield,  — when  I recall  the 
wonderful  address  made  at  the  very  outset  of  his  career,  stand- 
ing on  this  very  spot,  invited  by  this  very  Society  in  the  natal 
year  of  its  existence,  when  standing  on  the  Rock  of  Plymouth, 
in  1820,  two  centuries  complete,  he  uttered  here  that  terrible 
denunciation  of  the  barter  in  human  flesh  which  goes  ringing 
down  the  ages,  now  that  personal  weaknesses  and  party  asper- 
ities have  been  long  forgotten,  — when  I remember  that  unap- 
proachable statement  he  made,  of  the  interlocking,  interacting 
relations  and  functions  of  the  two  sovereignties  under  which 
we  Americans  of  to-day  live  and  move  and  have  our  being, — 
a statement  made  in  December,  1843,  before  the  New  England 
Society  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  never  to  this  hour  im- 
proved upon  — it  is  hard  to  believe  it  can  ever  be  improved 
upon  — I cannot  but  pause  and  hold  my  breath  and  utter  a 
silent  prayer  for  one  more  diapason-note  from  that  most  mirac- 
ulous organ. 

But,  Sir,  you  ask  me  for  a word  in  behalf  of  the  Essex 
Institute  which  sends  me  here  charged  with  its  greetings  and 
good  wishes.  The  relations  of  North  and  South  Shore,  — of 


71 


Cape  Cod  and  Cape  Ann,  have  always  been  friendly  and  fra- 
ternal as  they  always  should  be,  — never  more  so  than  in  this 
present  year  of  grace.  We  acknowledge  with  satisfaction,  — 
we  take  pleasure  to-day  in  reminding  you  of  the  debt,  — the 
obligation  incurred  by  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  in  the 
visit  from  your  skilled  and  Godly  practitioner,  Deacon  Fuller, 
when  Governor  Endicott,  bitterly  bereft  in  the  loss  of  his 
courageous  wife,  found  himself  burdened  with  more  than  he 
could  bear  in  the  raging  epidemic  of  ship  fever,  which  scourg- 
ed us  during  his  first  winter.  Says  Nathaniel  Morton,  in  his 
Brief  Relation  or  New  England’s  Memorial : “ This  year  sundry 
ships  came  out  of  England ,*  and  arrived  at  Neumskak , (now 
called  Salem),  where  Mr.  John  Endicot  had  chief  command; 
and  by  infection  that  grew  amongst  the  Passengers  at  Sea,  it 
spread  also  among  them  on  shore,  of  which  many  died,  some 
of  the  Scurvy,  and  others  of  infectious  Feavers.  Mr.  Endicot , 
understanding  that  there  was  one  at  Plimouth  that  had  skill  in 
such  Diseases,  sent  thither  for  him  ; at  whose  request  he  was 
sent  unto  them.  And  afterwards,  acquaintance  and  Christian 
Love  and  Correspondency  came  on  betwixt  the  Governour,  and 
the  said  Mr.  Endicot;  which  was  furthered  by  Congratulatory 
Letters  that  passed  betwixt  each  other ; one  whereof,  because 
it  shews  the  beginning  of  their  Christian  Fellowship,  I shall 
here  insert.” 

Now  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  tax  your  patience  with  long^ 
drawn  recitals.  This  is  the  Pilgrim’s  day  and  theirs  is  the 
honor  and  the  glory  of  it.  They  deserve  it  all.  Nobody  — 
certainly  no  Massachusetts  Bay  Puritan, — would  withhold  a tittle 
of  the  praise  they  are  enjoying.  But  may  it  not  be,  in  the 
exuberance  of  joy,  that  the  merits  of  old  Governor  Endicott 
and  his  little  band  of  rigid  old  Puritans  may  have  been  permit- 


72 


ted  for  the  moment  to  pass  a little  into  the  shade.  Let  ns 
read  this  letter,  if  you  will  bear  with  me  for  a moment,  slowly 
and  lovingly  together.  It  is  not  long.  It  is  Governor  Endi- 
cott’s  letter  to  Governor  Bradford  in  recognition  of  the  great 
kindness  described  by  Morton  in  the  passage  I have  read.  It 
will  do  us  good  to  hear  it.  It  will  be  worth  the  time  if  it  do 
no  more  than  call  to  mind  the  lofty  strain  of  courtesy,  — the 
stately  dignity  which  prevailed  amongst  these  old-time  magnates. 
But  it  will  do  more,  unless  language  has  lost  its  meaning,  — 
unless  words  possess  no  longer  a current  value  as  the  coinage 
of  the  heart.  Let  me  read  this  letter  of  Governor  Endicott’s, 
and  let  us  see  if  any  better-conceived  message  of  grateful  ac- 
knowledgment, official  or  personal,  has  ever  passed  between 
these  two  communities  before  or  since. 

It  may  be  true, — far  be  it  from  me  to  deny,  that  our  fine  old 
Governor  may  have  been  a little  hasty  at  times,  with  the  em- 
blem of  popery  in  the  King’s  colors,  for  instance, — with  the 
Anabaptists  and  Quakers  and  other  schismatics  and  heretics, — 
somewhat  rough  and  rigorous  at  times,  in  correcting  some  little 
eccentricities  in  this  neighborhood,  in  connection  with  your 
May-pole  proceedings  and  your  too  practical  free  trade  views, 
in  dealing  in  fire-arms  and  fire-water  with  that  red-skinned  fra- 
ternity, the  Unimproved  Order  of  Red  Men.  Allowing  for  all 
this  I wish  you  would  listen  kindly  to  the  old  Puritan’s  letter, 
and  see  if  you  have  any  doubt  about  its  being  written  by  a 
gentleman.  Here  it  is  : 

u To  the  worshipful  and  my  right  worthy  friend,  William 
Bradford,  Esqr.,  Governor  of  New  Plymouth,  these, — 

Right  Worthy  Sir; 

It  is  a thing  not  usual,  that  servants  to  one  master  and  of 
the  same  household  should  be  strangers ; I assure  you  I desire 


73 

it  not ; nay  to  speak  more  plainly,  I cannot  be  so  to  you  r- 
God’s  people  are  all  marked  with  one  and  the  same  mark,  and 
sealed  with  one  and  the  same  seal,  and  have,  for  the  main, 
one  and  the  same  heart,  guided  by  one  and  the  same  spirit  of 
truth ; and  where  this  is  there  can  be  no  discord,  nay,  here 
must  needs  be  sweet  harmony ; and  the  same  request  (with 
you)  I make  unto  the  Lord,  that  we  may,  as  Christian  brethren, 
be  united  by  an  heavenly  and  unfeigned  love,  bending  all  our 
hearts  and  forces  in  furthering  a work  beyond  our  strength 
with  reverence  and  fear,  fastening  our  eyes  always  on  Him  that 
only  is  able  to  direct  and  prosper  all  our  ways.  I acknow- 
ledge myself  much  bound  to  you,  for  your  kind  love  and^carer 
in  sending  Mr.  Fuller  amongst  us,  and  rejoice  much  that  I am 
by  him  satisfied,  touching  your  judgments  of  the  outward  form 
of  God’s  worship ; it  is  (as  far  as  I can  yet  gather)  no  other 
than  is  warranted  by  the  evidence  of  truth,  and  the  same  which 
I have  professed  and  maintained,  ever  since  the  Lord  in  mercy 
revealed  himself  unto  me,  being  far  differing  from  the  common 
report  that  hath  been  spread  of  you  touching  that  particular 
but  God’s  children  must  not  look  for  less  here  below,  and  it  is 
the  great  mercy  of  God  that  he  strengthens  them  to  go  through 
with  it.  I shall  not  need  at  this  time  to  be  tedious  unto  your 
for,  God  willing,  I purpose  to  see  your  face  shortly : In  the 
mean  time  I humbly  take  my  leave  of  you,  committing  you  to 
the  Lord’s  blessed  protection,  and  rest, 

Your  assured  loving  friend  and  servant, 

John  Endecott. 

Naumkeak , May  11,  Anno  1629.” 

So  you  see,  gentlemen,  that  Dr.  Fuller’s  mission  bore 
double  fruit ; he  relieved  the  North  Shore  colonists  of  a 
plethora  of  the  vital  fluid,  but  he  also  relieved  the  mind  of 


74 


Governor  Endicott  of  some  qualms  about  the  heterodoxy  of 
his  Plymouth  neighbors.  Perhaps  this  last  was  as  great  a 
service  as  the  other.  Perhaps  the  deacon  was  no  less  wel- 
come than  the  doctor,  for  our  excellent  Governor  was  no 

bungler  in  the  art  of  physic.  He  could  administer  law, 
medicine,  or  theology  upon  occasion.  He  had  brought  with 
him,  as  every  navigator  does  on  a voyage,  a well-filled 

medicine  chest,  with  its  recipes  and  bandages,  and  cata- 
plasms and  hand-books  — books,  says  the  inventory  of  the 
estate,  “both  of  physic  and  chyrurgery,  with  one  saw 

and  six  other  instruments  for  a chyrurgeon.”  But  when 
he  found  his  outfit  of  science  and  materia  medica  unequal 
to  the  exigency,  he  did  what  any  sensible  professional  man 
would  have  done  — called  in  a consulting  physician.  If 
there  were  time,  I should  like  to  read  to  you  from  the  re- 
port of  the  case  made  to  Governor  Bradford  by  that  esti- 
mable “chyrurgeon  and  physitian,”  Deacon  Samuel  Fuller, 
because  it  shows  how  blood-letting  and  catechising  travelled 
hand  in  hand,  and  it  also  shows  a wholesome  belief  in  a 
personal  devil  prevailing  in  this  section.  If  you  have,  by 
any  means,  been  led  to  regard  the  “ ould  deluder,  Satan,’ ' 
as  a perquisite  of  the  Bay  Colony,  as  a product  or  ap- 
panage exclusively  of  the  North  Shore,  I beg  you  to  ob- 
serve that  your  own  saintly  Dr.  Fuller,  in  his  letter,  from 
which  I shall  read  a line,  not  only  recognizes  our  old 
friend,  the  father  of  mischief,  at  sight,  but  even  regards 
the  North  Shore  potentate  as  a pretty  fair  match  for  the 
beneficent  powers  of  the  universe.  Here  is  one  of  Dr. 
Fuller’s  despatches  to  his  home  government,  if  you  will  al- 
low me  to  read  from  it,  showing  that  theological  contention 
at  that  time  came  as  easy  as  blood-letting.  He  writes : 


75 


* * * “I  have  been  at  Matapan,  at  the  request  of  Mr. 

Warham,  and  let  some  twenty  of  these  people  blood  ; I had 
conference  with  them  ’til  I was  weary.  Mr.  Warham  holds 
that  the  visible  church  may  consist  of  a mixed  people, 
godly,  and  openly  ungodly  ; upon  which  point  we  had  all  our 
conference,  to  which,  I trust,  the  Lord  will  give  a bles- 
sing. * * * We  have  some  privy  enemies  in  the  bay, 

but  (blessed  be  God)  more  friends;  # * * oppres- 
sors there  is  not  wanting,  and  Satan  is  busy ; but,  if  the 
Lord  be  on  our  side,  who  can  be  against  us?  * * * 

Captain  Endecott  (my  dear  friend,  and  a friend  to  us  all ) 
is  a second  Burrow.  The  Lord  established  him,  and  us  all, 
in  every  good  way  of  truth  1 * * * 

Yours  in  the  Lord  Christ, 

Samuel  Fuller. 

Massachusetts,  June  28,  Anno  1630.” 

I fear  Governor  Endicott  was  not  able  during  his  life- 
time to  make  to  Plymouth  any  return  of  a favor  of  this 
magnitude,  but  he  was  only  ten  years  in  his  grave  when 
King  Philip’s  war  broke  out ; when  that  dusky  strategist  and 
statesman,  the  first  expounder,  as  I take  it,  of  the  Mon- 
roe doctrine  on  this  continent,  began  swinging  the  toma- 
hawk, without  discrimination,  over  fighters  and  skulkers, 
babes  and  mothers,  patriarchs  and  preachers ; letting  his 
bludgeon  fall,  like  the  rains  of  Heaven,  alike  on  the  just  and 
on  the  unjust  in  this  Plymouth  colony.  Blazing  Medfield 
was  rolled  up  like  a scroll,  and  pillage  and  massacre 
seemed  to  wait  on  what  was  spared  by  fire.  If  ever  a 
struggling  colony  wanted  help,  Plymouth  wanted  help  at 
that  hour.  Providence  had  favored  us  at  that  hour  with  a 
trusty  champion  in  the  person  of  Captain  Joseph  Gardner  — 
the  “Fighting  Joe”  of  the  period  — who  buckled  on  his 


76 


harness  and  mustered  his  musketeers  and  marched  out  at 
the  head  of  a gallant  train-band  from  his  home  in  Sa- 
lem — that  home  not  three  doors  off  from  the  present  quar- 
ters of  the  Essex  Institute,  to  do  and  die  in  effective  bat- 
tle for  the  safety  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  and  there,  in 
Naragansett  swamp,  to  render  up  a dearly  valued  life  inside 
the  pallisado  breastworks  of  the  savage  chieftain.  I thank 
you,  sir,  for  the  opportunity  of  a word ; and  you,  gentlemen, 
my  listeners,  for  your  courtesy  and  patience  in  permitting 
me  to  refresh  your  recollections  on  two  events  which  should 
forever  bind  together  the  destinies  of  Eastern  Massachusetts. 

The  President  : — The  lateness  of  the  hour  warns  me 
that  the  exercises  of  the  day  must  now  be  brought  to  a 
close.  The  occasion  has  passed  into  history ; all  that  re- 
mains for  me  to  do,  is  to  wish  you  a safe  return  to  happy 
homes. 


CORRECTION. 


On  page  five  it  is  stated  that  the  ode  41  Sons  of  Re- 
nowned Sires”  was  written  for  the  celebration  in  1792. 
Historical  writers  give  different  dates.  Russell  says  1792 
Thacher  says  in  one  edition  of  his  History  of  Plymouth, 
1793,  and  in  another,  1794.  The  date  has  been  definitely 
fixed  by  a letter  from  Plymouth,  dated  December  23,  1794, 
and  published  in  The  Federal  Orrery,  of  December  25, 
which,  in  speaking  of  the  observance  of  the  Pilgrim  anni- 
versary on  the  22d,  states  that  the  ode  was  written  for  that 
occasion,  and  was  sung  by  Captain  J.  Thomas.  It  is 
probable  that  the  singer  was  John  Thomas,  of  Kingston, 
afterwards  Colonel  in  the  militia,  and  a son  of  General 
John  Thomas,  of  the  Revolution. 


\ 


